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THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

A  Critical  and  Historical  Review  of 
the  Evidence  for  Telepathy  with  a 
Record  of  New  Experiments  1902- 
1903.  Cloth  $1.25  net 


CRYSTAL  GAZING 

Its  History  and  Practice,  with  a  Dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  Evidence  for  Tele¬ 
pathic  Scrying.  Introduction  by  An¬ 
drew  Lang,  M.A.,  LL.D.  Cloth  $1.25 

DODGE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
40-42  East  19th  Street 
New  York 


Thought  Transference 

A  Critical  and  Historical  Review  of 
the  Evidence  for  Telepathy,  with 
a  Record  of  New  Experiments 
1902-1903 


By 

NORTHCOTE  W.  THOMAS,  M.A. 

Author  of  “Crystal  Gazing” 


NEW  YORK 

Dodge  Publishing  Company 

23  East  20th  Street 


Copyright,  1905,  by 
Dodge  Publishing  Co. 


PREFACE 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research  more  than  twenty-three  years  ago,  a 
great  mass  of  more  or  less  well-evidenced  material 
has  been  published  upon  subjects  such  as  thought- 
transference,  crystal  gazing,  ghosts,  mediumship, 
physical  phenomena  and  other  so-called  “  occult  ” 
manifestations.  There  have,  however,  been  but 
few  attempts  to  sum  up  the  evidence  and  make  it 
available  for  the  ordinary  citizen  who  cannot  find 
time  to  read  the  whole  of  the  thirty  volumes  pub¬ 
lished  by  the  Society.  Even  in  the  Society’s  own 
publications  there  is,  as  a  rule,  no  periodical  sum¬ 
ming  up  of  the  evidence  for  the  various  phenomena 
and  hypotheses. 

I  propose,  therefore,  to  discuss  Psychical  Re¬ 
search  or  Metapsychics,  as  Professor  Richet  terms 
it,  in  a  series  of  works  which  will  deal  critically 
hut  sympathetically  with  the  evidence.  Where 
the  historical  and  anthropological  facts  are  of 
interest  or  importance,  they  will  not  he  neglected, 
but  my  main  purpose  is  to  show  what  a  reasonable 


v 


vi  PREFACE 

man  without  bias  in  either  direction  may  regard 
as  proved. 

The  ignorant  criticism  to  which  the  Society 
was  subjected  in  its  earlier  days  has  given  place 
in  many  quarters  to  an  equally  uncritical  accept¬ 
ance  of  its  results ;  but  neither  the  credulity 
nor  the  scepticism  of  the  public  is  based  on  know¬ 
ledge.  Denial  and  affirmation  are  both  equally 
easy,  when  the  authors  of  the  sentiment  know  noth¬ 
ing  of  the  question  at  issue.  I  hope  to  provide  a 
series  of  text  books  which  will  render  both  scepticism 
and  credulity  less  excusable. 

I  am  much  indebted  to  the  various  ladies  and 
gentlemen  whose  trials  are  chronicled  in  the  latter 
half  of  this  volume,  for  assistance  in  experiments 
which  are  too  often  neither  interesting  nor  suc¬ 
cessful.  At  the  time  of  going  to  press  I  have  lost 
sight  of  some  of  them,  and  their  initials  only  are 
given  in  the  absence  of  express  permission  to  give 
the  full  names. 

I  am  also  indebted  to  the  Council  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  for  permission  to  quote 
from  the  Proceedings  and  Journal,  and  especially 
for  the  right  of  publishing  the  unprinted  results  of 
the  experiments  tried  in  190 1-2,  the  records  of 
which  are  now  in  my  possession. 

.NORTHCOTE  W.  THOMAS. 


April,  1905. 


CHAP. 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 


CONTENTS 


Incredulty,  Scientific  and  Otherwise — Ac¬ 
tion  at  a  Distance — The  Qualifications 
of  a  Psychical  Researcher — Dr.  W.  B. 
Carpenter — What  is  Science? — Objec¬ 
tions  to  Psychical  Research  :  its  As¬ 
sumptions  :  its  Devotees  :  its  Sphere  of 
Enquiry  ....... 

Telepathy  a  Designation,  not  a  Theory — Pos¬ 
sible  Errors  ...... 

The  Subliminal — Ordinary  Sense  Perception 
—  Hypnotic  Hallucinations  —  Trance  — 
Clairvoyance  ...... 

How  we  become  aware  of  Subliminal  Ideas — 
Mental  Impressions — Visions  and  Hallu¬ 
cinations — Automatic  Writing 

Historical — The  Magnetizers — Spiritualism — 
The  Newnham  Experiments  —  Experi¬ 
ments  by  Mr.  Malcolm  Guthrie,  Profes¬ 
sor  Sidgwick  and  others  .... 

Experiments  at  a  Distance  —  Transference 
of  Images — Telepathic  Hallucinations  . 

Telepathic  Hypnotism — Telepathic  Dreams 

Experiments  in  1902  —  Pictures  —  Colours  — 
Diagrams  ....... 

vii 


page 

1 

25 

33 

51 

62 

82 

106 


12  7 


CONTENTS 


viii 

CHAP.  PAGE 

IX  Card  Experiments  —  Independent  Variables 
— Trials  in  same  room — Postponed  Suc¬ 
cesses — Cyclic  Guessing — Trials  in  Dif¬ 
ferent  rooms  ......  154 

X  The  Net  Result — Future  Investigation  .  .  175 

XI  The  Ethics  of  Criticism — Problems — The¬ 
ories — Objections — Mind  and  Matter — 
Psychological  Parallelism — The  Igno¬ 
rance  of  Science — Basis  of  Belief  that 
Language  conveys  Ideas  .  .  .  .182 

XII  How  to  Experiment . 205 

Bibliography . 21 1 

Index . 213 


CHAPTER  I 


Incredulity,  scientific  and  otherwise ■ — Action  at  a  dis¬ 
tance — The  qualifications  of  a  psychical  research¬ 
er — Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter — What  is  science ? — 
Objections  to  Psychical  Research:  its  assump¬ 
tions:  its  devotees:  its  sphere  of  enquiry 

Some  things  appear  to  us  impossible  because  of 
the  range  of  our  knowledge.  Few  sane  persons 
with  a  competent  knowledge  of  physics  will  set 
out  on  a  quest  for  perpetual  motion.  If  by  any 
chance  such  a  person  does  do  so,  and  believes  that 
he  has  solved  the  problem,  it  is  possible  to  demon¬ 
strate  to  him  that  his  theoretical  solution  conflicts 
with  established  principles,  and  is  therefore  erro¬ 
neous.1  In  other  cases  well-attested  reports  of 
phenomena  are  disbelieved,  not  because  the  state¬ 
ments  contradict  any  positive  knowledge,  but  by 
reason  of  the  extent  of  our  ignorance.  Globular 
lightning  was  long  regarded  as  impossible,  not 
because  it  conflicted  with  any  known  facts,  but 

1  A  Cambridge  wrangler  was  reported  to  have  solved  the 
problem  some  twenty  years  ago.  The  only  defect  in  his  so¬ 
lution  was  its  omission  to  take  account  of  the  fact  that  gravity 
acts  downwards. 


1 


B 


2  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

because  it  was  unlike  any  form  of  electric  discharge 
that  could  be  experimentally  produced.  As  soon 
as  it  was  shown  that  something  analogous  could 
be  demonstrated  in  the  laboratory,  there  was  a 
change  of  view  as  to  the  value  of  the  evidence 
previously  accumulated. 

In  1882  a  Society,  whose  name  is  now  a  house¬ 
hold  word,  was  formed  to  conduct  “  an  examina¬ 
tion  into  the  nature  and  extent  of  any  influence 
which  may  be  exerted  by  one  mind  upon  another, 
apart  from  any  generally  recognized  mode  of  per¬ 
ception,”  and  for  other  objects.  The  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  during  the  first  ten  years  of 
its  existence  devoted  its  energies  in  the  main  to  the 
question  of  thought  transference  or  telepathy,  spon¬ 
taneous  and  experimental.  Since  that  time  the 
study  of  these  questions  has  on  the  whole  been  over¬ 
shadowed  by  investigations  into  trance  mediumship 
— a  line  of  research  more  attractive  to  the  outside 
world,  as  well  as  to  the  spiritualistic  section  of  the 
Society,  but  hardly  calculated  to  be  fruitful  without 
at  least  a  preliminary  disproof  of  the  existence  of 
thought  transference  or  a  determination  of  its  limits 
between  living  persons. 

Since  the  experiments  conducted  in  1889  and 
1890  by  the  late  Prof.  Sidgwick,  Mrs.  Sidgwick 
and  others,  no  long  series  of  trials  has  been  pub¬ 
lished  by  the  Society.  Virtually  no  fresh  evidence 


INCREDULITY 


3 


has  therefore  been  accumulated,  and  in  view  of 
the  experience  of  the  possibilities  of  error  gained 
since  the  childhood  of  the  Society  this  failure  to 
accumulate  new  evidence  cannot  but  throw  some 
doubt  on  results  which  at  the  time  seemed  almost 
conclusive.  This  doubt  must  in  fact  gain  strength 
from  the  conclusive  character  of  the  evidence 
published  in  Proc.  S.P.R.  vi,  128;  viii.  560,  sq.  If 
the  Society  has,  in  the  twelve  years  which  have 
elapsed,  failed  to  obtain,  in  a  series  of  any  length, 
results  that  were  above  probability,  or  so  much 
above  probability  as  to  exclude  chance  variations 
as  a  probable  explanation,  we  can  either  conclude 
that  the  perceptual  faculty  is  rarely  possessed  in 
the  degree  to  which  the  Brighton  percipients  of 
1889  and  1890,  chosen,  it  appears,  at  random, 
possessed  it,  or  we  can  perhaps  with  more  reason 
conclude  that  there  was  some  serious  undetected 
flaw  in  the  method  of  experimentation. 

The  purpose  of  the  following  pages  is,  in  the  first 
place,  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  the  evidence  so  far 
available  for  experimental  thought  transference, 
and,  in  the  second  place,  to  indicate  the  lines  on 
which  those  who  have  no  special  claim  to  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  the  sources  of  error  in  psychological 
investigation,  and  who  do  not  regard  themselves 
as  more  favoured  than  their  fellows  in  the  direction 
of  divining  the  thoughts  of  other  people,  may  profit- 


4 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


ably  (to  science,  if  not  to  themselves)  experiment, 
and  to  show  in  what  respect  such  experiments, 
attended  with  but  slight  success,  though  they  may  be, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  regard  thought 
transference  as  a  fact  to  be  proved  by  experimenta¬ 
tion  with  exceptional  individuals,  may  do  more 
to  establish  the  theory  on  a  sound  basis  than  all 
the  more  sensational  work  of  previous  investi¬ 
gators. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  above  that  there  are 
two  kinds  of  incredulity — one,  which  may  be 
termed  scientific,  refuses  to  accept  any  evidence,  how¬ 
ever  good  in  quality  and  quantity,  which  would,  if 
accepted,  involve  the  assumption  that  two  contra¬ 
dictory  statements  can  both  be  true.  The  other, 
which  is  pure  prejudice  and  merely  an  example  of 
scientific  superstition,  refuses  to  accept  any  evidence, 
however  good  in  quality  or  quantity,  as  to  facts 
or  alleged  facts,  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they 
cannot  be  brought  into  line  with,  and  shown  to  be 
analogous  to,  one  or  more  accepted  facts.  In  so 
saying,  I  do  not,  of  course,  include  the  sane  scepti¬ 
cism  which  refuses  to  accept  statements  not  backed 
up  by  sufficient  evidence,1  but  only  that  attitude 
of  mind  which  is  so  satisfied  with  its  supposed 

1  The  question  of  what  is  sufficient  evidence  is  a  difficult 
matter  and  need  not  be  discussed  here. 


ACTION  AT  A  DISTANCE 


5 


knowledge  of  the  universe,  as  to  be  able  to  inform 
humanity  that  no  evidence  can  be  sufficient,  that 
experiments  in  such  matters  are  mere  folly,  and  that 
no  results  can  be  anticipated  from  them  ( vide 
Nature ,  vol.  24,  p.  172.)  The  irrational  character  of 
this  attitude  is  apparent,  when  we  reflect  that  were 
it  logically  adhered  to,  no  evidence  would  suffice  to 
convince  us  of  the  existence  of  any  isolated  fact  in 
nature,  however  many  observations  were  available. 
We  might  for  example  deny  the  existence  of  gravi¬ 
tation  because  it  is  the  only  force  which  appears  to 
be  independent,  in  its  manifestation,  of  either  time 
or  space. 

The  scientific  world  (or  certain  members  of  it), 
has  declared  telepathy  to  be  an  impossibility; 
it  has  done  this  on  the  ground  that  action  at  a 
distance  is  impossible,  and  that  therefore  no  hypoth¬ 
esis  which  involves  it  is  worth  consideration.  With 
regard  to  these  assertions,  it  may  be  noted  that 
it  is  very  far  from  proved  that  action  at  a  distance 
is  impossible.  At  most,  what  has  been  proved  is  that 
no  action  hitherto  observed  is  action  at  a  distance, 
and  even  this  statement  might  require  to  be  qualified 
in  the  case  of  gravitation,  if  not  of  other  forces. 
However  that  may  be,  any  one  who  maintains  that 
action  at  a  distance  cannot  be  a  fact  because  it  has 
not  yet  been  discovered,  is  no  more  advanced  than 
the  labourer,  who,  on  seeing  a  steam-engine  at  work 


6 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


for  the  first  time,  concluded  that  there  was  a  horse 
inside  it  because  that  was  the  only  kind  of  non¬ 
human  force  that  he  knew.  The  savage  and  the 
scientist  are  not  so  far  from  one  another  as  some 
people  imagine. 

It  is,  however,  very  far  from  proved  that  telepathy 
any  more  than  gravitation  involves  action  at  a 
distance.  It  is,  indeed,  difficult  to  conceive  how 
the  vibration  of  a  physical  medium  can  transmit 
thought;  but  this  is  no  more  an  objection  to  the 
view  that  it  does  do  so,  than  is  the  impossibility  of 
bridging  the  gulf  from  molecular  motion  to  con¬ 
sciousness  a  refutation  of  the  hypothesis  that  the 
brain  is  the  organ  of  mind.  We  may  reasonably  go 
on  to  ask  by  what  kind  of  reasoning  it  has  .been 
proved  that  consciousness  is  localized  in  the  brain. 
A  physicist  tells  us  that  a  charge  of  electricity 
appears  to  be  localized  on  the  surface  of  a  con¬ 
ductor,  but  is  really  distributed  in  space  round  it. 
We  have  absolutely  no  grounds  for  supposing  that 
the  same  may-  not  be  true  of  consciousness.  All 
arguments  to  the  contrary  assume  that  absence  of 
sensation  (I  mean  thereby,  absence  of  one  of  the 
ordinarily  recognized  five  sorts  of  sensation  con¬ 
veyed  by  definite  nerves  and  under  normal  cir¬ 
cumstances,  definitely  localized)  is  equivalent  to 
absence  of  consciousness  and  that  consciousness, 
so  far  as  it  is  feeling,  is  the  sum  of  the  feelings 


CONSCIOUSNESS  NON-SPATIAL  7 

conveyed  by  the  nervous  system.1  This,  however, 
is  the  very  point  at  issue  and  cannot  be  assumed 
unless  experiments  devised  to  that  end  (which  may 
be,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  impossible  to  conceive,  or 
carry  out)  have  proved  that  no  such  “  distribution  ” 
of  consciousness  occurs. 

We  may  again  ask  in  what  sense  it  can  be  said 
that  consciousness  is  localized  at  all.  We  are,  of 
course,  made  aware  by  our  senses  only  of  vibrations 
that  impinge  on  the  nerve  ends,  or  in  other  words, 
impulses  that  directly  affect  the  body.  But  that  is 
no  proof  that  localization  can  be  intelligibly  at¬ 
tributed  to  consciousness.  If  we  are  only  conscious 
of  heat  or  cold  when  the  surface  of  the  body  is  at 
a  different  temperature  from  its  surroundings,  that 
is  no  proof  that  our  consciousness  is  at  a  tempera¬ 
ture  of  98.5°.  To  put  the  matter  in  another  form, 
consciousness  is  certainly,  so  far  as  introspection 
tells  us  anything,  non-spatial.  We  cannot  therefore 
object  to  inquire  into  the  possibility  of  one  con¬ 
sciousness  influencing  another,  through  other  than 
the  recognized  modes  of  sensation,  on  the  ground 
that  such  influence  necessarily  involves  action  at  a 
distance;  spatial  nearness  and  distance  are  mean- 

1  On  this  question  the  experiments  in  clairvoyance  are  of 
interest,  by  which  I  mean  experiments  such  as  those  tried 
by  Professor  Richet  ( Proc .  S.P.R.),  to  determine  how  far  it  is 
possible  to  guess  cards  drawn  at  random  and  unseen  by  any 


one. 


8 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


ingless  as  applied  to  our  own  consciousness  and  do 
not  necessarily  apply  to  the  relation  of  our  own 
to  other  consciousnesses.  The  argument  that  tele¬ 
pathy  involves  action  at  a  distance  in  this  case  falls 
to  the  ground. 

Objections  of  this  class  fail,  moreover,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  no  generalization  from  the  facts 
of  experience  can  exclude  the  possibility  of  other 
facts  not  inconsistent  with  the  previously  ascertained 
facts.  That  knowledge  ordinarily  and  habitually 
comes  to  us  one  way  no  more  excludes  the  possibility 
of  its  coming  in  an  entirely  different  way,  than  the 
practically  instantaneous  discharge  of  electricity 
under  ordinary  circumstances  excludes  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  globular  lightning  and  other  slow  dis¬ 
charges.  Congruent  observations  by  competent 
observers  must  be  accepted  as  prima  facie  evidence 
until  definite  sources  of  error  are  demonstrated. 

This  brings  us  to  a  second  point.  It  is  frequently 
argued  that  the  proper  persons  to  take  up  thought 
transference  are  physiologists,  and  that  those  who 
have  no  knowledge  of  the  phenomena  of  brain  or  of 
mind  are  incompetent.  It  may  be  pointed  out  that 
no  physiologist  who  ever  lived  could  explain  by 
means  of  physiology  how  we  think  at  all.  If  the 
idea  “  cat  ”  is  associated  with  a  certain  molecular 
arrangement  in  the  brain,  all  the  professors  in  the 
world  cannot  tell  us  why  it  should  be  so  associated, 


EXPERIMENTERS 


9 


nor  even  tell  us  with  what  arrangement  of  the 
molecules  of  the  brain  the  idea  “  cat  ”  is  associated. 
As  thought  transference  deals  with  ideas,  the  physio¬ 
logist  is  clearly  no  use,  so  far  as  explanations  are 
concerned,  though  so  far  as  physiologists  are  more 
likely  to  exclude  errors  and  to  experiment  in  the 
most  scientific  way  possible,  their  work  on  the 
question  of  telepathy  is  desirable.  But  to  argue 
that  because  a  man  has  investigated  the  mechanism 
of  the  nerves  or  the  minute  structure  of  the  brain, 
he  is  better  qualified  to  discover  the  causes  of 
certain  states  of  mind,  is  an  obvious  absurdity.  It 
does  not  follow  that  a  physicist  who  understands 
the  mathematics  of  the  question  will  be  a  better  shot 
than  a  gamekeeper  or  a  poacher.  Nor  does  it 
follow  that  a  man  whose  experience  has  been 
with  microscopes  will  he  successful  in  dealing  with 
the  medium.  The  sole  point  on  which  his  knowledge, 
as  distinguished  from  his  skill  as  an  experimenter, 
will  be  useful  is  on  the  question  of  how  far  hyperses- 
tliesia  in  the  normal  or  the  hypnotised  subject  can 
explain  the  phenomena  and,  perhaps,  what  pre¬ 
caution  should  be  taken  to  exclude  the  possibility 
of  it.  Otherwise  a  physiologist  is  not  necessarily  of 
so  much  use  as  a  phonographer.  For  under  proper 
conditions  of  experimentation  the  sole  question  is, 
“  Did  the  mental  phenomena  of  the  agent  show  a 
relation,  not  to  be  explained  as  the  result  of  chance, 


IO  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

to  the  mental  phenomena  of  the  percipient  ?  ” 
Given  an  accurate  record  of  the  psychical  states  of 
each,  and  it  does  not  matter  a  halfpenny,  so  far 
as  the  proof,  as  distinguished  from  the  explanation 
of  telepathy  goes,  what  their  brain  states  are.  For 
the  benefit  of  those,  however,  who  put  their  faith 
in  the  physiologist,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  more  than  one  person  to  whom  more 
than  common  knowledge  in  such  matters  is  attri¬ 
buted  has  investigated  the  question  of  thought  trans¬ 
ference  and  that  their  researches  have  not  been  un¬ 
attended  with  success.  As  an  example  I  may  cite 
Professor  Richet,  details  of  whose  experiments  in 
hypnotism  at  a  distance  are  to  be  found  in  Proc. 
S.P.R.,  v.  32,  sq.;  Revue  Phil.  xxv.  435. 

A  curious  commentary  on  the  alleged  super¬ 
excellence  of  physiologists  as  investigators  in  these 
matters  is  supplied  by  a  letter  of  the  arch  enemy  of 
spiritualism,  telepathy,  et  hoc  genus  omne,  the  late 
Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter,  in  Nature,  June  30,  1881, 
p.  T88.  He  had  given  a  testimonial  of  a  sort  to  the 
“  thought  reader,”  W.  I.  Bishop,  and  here  narrates 
an  experiment,  showing  that  “  we  may  be  guided  in 
our  choice  among  things  ‘  indifferent  ’  by  influences 
of  which  we  are  ourselves  unconscious .”  The  experi¬ 
ment  was  fhis:  the  subject  drew  a  card  from  a  pack, 
identified  it,  and  returned  it ;  the  pack  was  shuffled 
and  sixteen  cards  dealt  by  the  agent,  face  down- 


DR.  CARPENTER 


1 1 

wards  in  four  rows;  the  subject  then  selected  a 
row.  According  to  Dr.  Carpenter  the  selected  row 
was  to  be  taken  away.  It  could  not  therefore,  if  the 
experiment  was  to  be  successful,  contain  the  selected 
card ;  but  this  is  a  point  on  which  some  doubt  is 
permissible.  Three  rows  were  selected  in  this 
manner  and  three  cards  of  the  remaining  row,  and 
the  last  card,  on  being  turned  up,  was  identical  with 
the  card  originally  selected.  This  experiment  was 
performed  with  success  before  Dr.  Carpenter  three 
successive  times,  he  himself  being  the  subject  on  the 
last  occasion.  The  selection  of  rows  or  cards  was, 
in  each  case,  made  by  the  subject  with  his  right  hand, 
which  Mr.  Bishop  held  in  his  left,  and  Dr.  Carpenter 
held  that  the  influence  was  unconsciously  conveyed 
by  this  means. 

The  explanation  suggested  by  Dr.  Carpenter  is 
not  very  convincing,  and  an  ardent  believer  in  tele¬ 
pathy  might  be  disposed  to  regard  telepathic  in¬ 
fluence  as  a  more  likely  hypothesis.  We  need  not, 
however,  go  so  far  afield.  The  theory  of  Dr.  Car¬ 
penter  implies  that  Mr.  Bishop  knew  which  card  had 
been  selected;  this  of  itself  involves,  if  the  trial  is 
always  successful,  both  trickery  and  some  amount 
of  conjuring;  for  in  Dr.  Carpenter’s  report  we  are 
not  given  to  understand  that  any  means  were 
openly  taken  to  secure  that  the  selected  card  should 
be  among  those  dealt;  and  even  if  such  means  were 


12  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

taken  there  would  be  nothing  to  show  which  was 
the  card  in  question.  But  given  this  amount  of 
deception,  it  is  not  apparent  why  we  should  hold 
that  the  remainder  of  the  trick  was  performed  in  the 
way  suggested  by  Mr.  Bishop  and  accepted  by  Dr. 
Carpenter.  In  the  first  place,  we  do  not  learn  that 
any  precautions  were  taken  to  secure  that  the  ex¬ 
periment  was  tried  with  an  ordinary  pack ;  the 
simplest  way  would  obviously  be  to  try  it  with  one 
made  up  of  fifty-two  cards  all  alike,  the  company 
being  allowed  to  inspect  a  second  pack  of  the  ordi¬ 
nary  kind.  If  this  was  not  the  case,  it  remains  to  be 
proved  that  his  agent  did  not  sometimes  change  his 
formula  and  declare  that  the  row  or  card  selected 
was  the  row  or  card  to  be  retained.  Here  again, 
success  must  obviously  be  certain.  But  even  if  this 
were  not  so,  there  is  always  that  possibility  of  ex¬ 
plaining  away  ill  success,  which  is  the  chief  resource 
of  civilized  mediums  as  of  savage  sorcerers ;  the 
agent  could  always  declare,  when  the  row  containing 
the  card  selected  had  been  removed,  as  it  must 
frequently  be,  even  if  Mr.  Bishop  selected  for  his 
card  a  location  likely  to  influence  in  his  favour  the 
choice  of  the  subject,  that  the  card  was  in  the 
remainder  of  the  pack,  had  never  been  on  the  table. 
We  have  therefore,  at  least  three  other  possible 
explanations,  none  of  which  involve  more  than 
trickery  of  one  sort  or  another,  or  a  long  study  of  the 


DR.  CARPENTER 


13 


principles  on  which  the  ordinary  man  makes  three 
successive  choices ;  against  this  latter  hypothesis 
tell  Dr.  Carpenter’s  three  successes,  if  they  are  to  he 
regarded  as  anything  but  an  exceptional  series.  It 
is  possible  that  Dr.  Carpenter’s  theory  is  the  correct 
one;  but,  if  this  is  the  case,  he  is  clearly  deficient  in 
one,  or  perhaps  two,  of  the  most  essential  qualities  of 
a  psychical  researcher.  Either  he  took  no  pre¬ 
cautions  against  the  two  former  of  his  suggested 
methods;  or,  if  he  did,  he  did  not  record  the  pre¬ 
cautions,  which  may  or  may  not  have  been  adequate. 
In  any  case  the  experiments,  as  recorded,  are  value¬ 
less. 

A  reviewer  in  the  Lancet,1  with  that  air  of  supe¬ 
riority  which  always  endears  a  man  to  his  fellow 
searchers,  is  willing  to  admit  that  psychical  re¬ 
searchers  have  devoted  their  “  abilities,  such  as  they 
are,”  to  the  questions  they  have  made  their  own. 
Such  an  expression  might  seem,  in  the  mouth  of  any 
ordinary  human  being,  slightly  ludicrous,  when  it  is 
used  of  a  society  which  has  included  among  its  active 
workers  Plenry  Sidgwick,  Oliver  Lodge,  F.  W.  H. 
Myers.  Doubtless,  if  the  anonymous  reviewer’s 
name  were  at  our  disposal,  we  should  discover  that 
his  attitude  is  amply  justified.  However  that  may  be, 
the  analysis  of  Dr.  Carpenter’s  letter  given  above 
shows  that  even  a  physiologist,  who  has  given  special 
1  May  2,  1904. 


U  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

and  markedly  hostile  attention  to  the  problems  of 
spiritualism  and  thought  transference  and  to  occult 
questions  generally,  may  be  ludicrously  at  sea 
when  he  comes  to  deal  with  an  investigation  that 
would  present  no  special  features  of  difficulty  even 
to  the  average  psychical  researcher,  much  less  to  the 
expert. 

The  fact  is,  the  problems  of  psychical  research  are 
such,  that  very  special  training  is  necessary  to  en¬ 
able  even  a  clever  man  to  deal  with  them  success¬ 
fully.  This  special  training,  added  to  general 
culture  and  an  expert’s  acquaintance  with  some 
branch  of  science,  provides  us  with  the  ideal  psy¬ 
chical  researcher;  but,  if  for  a  special  investigation 
there  were  available  an  acute  experienced  man  of 
the  world  with  no  scientific  training  or  an  acute 
scientist  with  no  special  acquaintance  with  the 
problems  with  which  he  would  have  to  deal,  there 
can  be  no  question  but  that  the  choice  should  not 
fall  on  the  man  of  science.  So  much  for  the  argu¬ 
ment  against  Psychical  Research  which  is  based  on 
the  supposed  inadequate  education  of  its  chief 
exponents. 

Again,  we  have  the  objection  that  telepathic 
experiments  are  not  such  as  can  be  repeated  at  will 
in  the  laboratory  and  that  its  methods  and  as¬ 
sumptions  are  unscientific.  The  chemist  puts  his 
faith  in  the  results  of  his  labours,  because,  given  the 


WHAT  IS  SCIENCE? 


same  conditions,  the  same  result  will  be  produced, 
and  he,  as  other  men  of  science,  claims  that  nothing 
is  really  scientific  which  does  not  admit  of  similar 
exact  experimentation.  This  is,  however,  to  shut 
one’s  eyes  to  the  nature  of  science  and  to  the  dis¬ 
tinctive  characters  of  its  branches.  If  we  leave  out 
of  account  mathematics,  which,  with  logic,  holds 
a  peculiar  position,  owing  to  the  fact  that  its  subject 
matter  is  a  pure  abstraction,  tbe  sciences  fall  into 
three  main  groups:  I.  the  experimental  sciences 
such  as  physics,  where,  in  theory  at  any  rate,  all  the 
conditions  regarded  as  capable  of  influencing  the 
result  can  be  varied  at  will ;  2.  the  observational 
sciences,  such  as  astronomy,  where  none  of  the  con¬ 
ditions  can  be  varied  at  will ;  and  3.  the  mixed 
sciences,  such  as  biology,  where  certain  of  the 
factors  are  amenable  to  variation  at  will,  but  the 
majority  are  at  present  beyond  our  control.  The 
psychologist  has  to  deal  with  a  mixed  science ;  but 
the  mere  fact  that  a  given  experiment  cannot  be 
reproduced  at  will  is  no  more  a  proof  that  psycho¬ 
logy  is  not  a  science  than  is  the  fact  that  the  objects 
of  the  experiment  may  die  and  nip  it  in  the  bud, 
a  proof  that  biology  is  not  a  science.  The  biologist 
can  only  select  his  subjects  and  vary  the  external 
conditions;  his  main  business  is  the  observation  of 
processes  over  which  he  has  no  control  and  of  the 
nature  of  which,  in  some  cases,  such  as  reproduction, 


1 6  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

he  can  form  little  or  no  idea.  The  bacteriologist 
can  inject  his  serums  and  anti-toxins  into  selected 
subjects,  but  it  is  very  problematical  if  be  will  always 
produce  the  desired  result.  And,  above  all,  the 
doctor  can  dose  his  patients  with  medicines  by  the 
gallon  and  pills  by  the  cartload  and  the  outcome  of 
it  all  is  that  the  patient  is  worse  and  not  better. 
Yet  biology,  bacteriology  and  medicine  are  regarded 
as  sciences,  pure  and  applied,  and  the  experts  on 
these  subjects  would  feel  themselves  insulted  if  any 
one  told  them  they  were  unscientific. 

The  fact  is,  that  what  distinguishes  science  from 
other  branches  of  knowledge  is  neither  the  method 
nor  the  subject  matter,  but  the  aim  with  which  the 
studies  are  pursued.  Science  is  organized  know¬ 
ledge,  and  an  inquiry  is  scientific  if  its  object  is  to 
investigate  in  such  a  way  as  to  arrive  at  general 
results,  or  results  that,  in  combination  with  others, 
lead  to  general  conclusions.  Science  must  of 
necessity  study  the  individual,  but  it  does  so  in 
order  to  draw  conclusions  as  to  the  species.  The 
discovery  of  general  laws  is  the  aim  of  psychical 
research,  no  less  than  of  other  investigations  into 
the  other  phenomena  of  mind  and  matter.  Con¬ 
sequently  it  cannot,  on  this  head,  be  urged  that 
psychical  research  is  unscientific.  Using  terms 
loosely,  we  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  an  inquiry, 
a  method,  or,  more  often,  of  an  individual  inquirer, 


WHAT  IS  SCIENCE?  17 

as  scientific  or  unscientific.  By  that  is  meant 
not  that  the  phenomena  which  form  the  subject 
matter  of  the  inquiry  are  outside  the  range  of  science  ; 
that  is,  properly  speaking,  impossible,  if  the  defini¬ 
tion  of  science  just  given  is  correct.  Scientific  in 
this  sense  refers  to  the  assumptions  with  which  the 
inquirer  starts,  to  the  exactness  of  his  methods  of 
experimentation,  and  of  his  manner  of  recording 
the  conditions  and  results,  to  the  ability  or  incli¬ 
nation  of  the  student  to  consider  all  the  data  requisite 
to  a  just  judgment,  and  to  his  capacity  for  de¬ 
ducing  the  conclusions  from  those  data  in  a  logical 
manner.  Here,  too,  we  have  no  ground  for  denying 
to  psychical  research  the  name  of  science.  Its 
postulates  differ  in  no  essential'  particular  from 
those  of  other  sciences.  If  we  are  justified  in 
assuming  that  the  chemist,  for  example,  can  properly 
distinguish  between  the  changes  in  his  laboratory, 
which  he  regards  as  casually  connected  with  other 
changes  in  the  same  locality,  and  all  the  other 
manifold  changes  in  the  rest  of  the  universe;  or  that 
he  can,  in  other  words,  class  certain  antecedents  as 
causes,  discard  others  as  irrelevant,  and  again  select 
certain  consequents  as  the  effects  of  these  causes,  and 
discard  others  as  due  to  other,  independent,  causes, 
it  does  not  appear  that  we  can  condemn  psychical 
research  for  postulating  the  same  possibility  of  iso¬ 
lating  causes  and  effects. 


c 


IS  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

The  charge  against  psychical  research  is,  however, 
not  so  much  that  its  positive  assumptions  are  mis¬ 
chievous.  Its  critics  object  that  it  does  not  assume 
enough.  It  does  not  assume  that  the  postulates  of 
physical  science  such  as,  that  action  at  a  distance 
is  impossible — itself  an  unproved  and  improvable 
hypothesis — necessarily  apply  to,  or  rather  have  any 
meaning  in,  the  domain  of  psychical  science.  So 
far  as  this  implies  a  readiness  to  consider  “  occult  ” 
theories  in  preference  to  explanations  based  on  the 
principles  to  which  physical  science  gives  her  ad¬ 
herence,  it  is  to  be  censured,  as  is  any  other  bias 
in  the  man  of  science,  whose  business  is  to  go  where 
his  facts  lead  him.  But  it  is  clear  that  a  bias  in 
this  direction  is  not  a  necessary  part  of  the  equip¬ 
ment  of  a  psychical  researcher.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  the  contention  be  admitted  that  physical  science, 
which  cannot  now  and  perhaps  never  will  be  able 
to  give  an  intelligible  account  of  the  relation  be¬ 
tween  mind  and  matter,  is  entitled  to  lay  down 
the  law  as  to  what  is  possible  and  what  is  not  possible 
in  the  psychical  domain,  we  are  asked  to  adopt  an 
utterly  unproved  hypothesis,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  set  out  on  our  investigations  with  a  bias  against 
a  certain  class  of  explanation.  It  is  not  the 
absence  of  bias  which  is  demanded  of  us ;  this  simple 
statement  is  enough  to  justify  the  attitude  of  psy¬ 
chical  research.  In  the  last  resort  the  charge 


WHAT  IS  SCIENCE? 


19 


against  psychical  research  frequently  resolves  itself 
into  one  against  the  spirit  of  its  devotees.  Both 
its  aim  and  its  procedure  may  he  scientific,  but  the 
average  person  who  takes  an  interest  in  psychical  re¬ 
search  is  not  a  psychologist  and  does  not  approach 
it  from  the  psychologist’s  point  of  view.  If  this 
is  a  valid  objection,  we  may  with  equal  justice 
dismiss  astronomy  from  the  ranks  of  science,  be¬ 
cause  the  majority  of  people  who  look  at  the  stars 
are  not  astronomers,  or  biology,  because  the  cattle- 
breeder  is  interested  in  the  question  from  a  severely 
practical  point  of  view,  or  medicine,  because  the 
interest  of  the  layman  in  it  is  stimulated,  not  by  a 
proper  scientific  spirit,  but  rather  by  a  distressingly 
mundane  desire  to  be  rid  of  his  pains.  A  retro¬ 
spective  census  would  be  even  more  effective  in 
defeating  the  claims  of  any  branch  of  knowledge, 
judged  on  these  principles,  to  the  name  of  science. 
But  no  one  is  asked  to  listen  to  an  incompetent 
person  who  chooses  to  dabble  in  psychical  research, 
any  more  than  any  one  is  bound  to  give  a  hearing 
to  an  earth  flattener,  or  a  defender  of  Christian 
Science,  or  any  other  amiable  lunatic,  because  they 
deal  with  the  same  phenomena  as  their  more  rational 
fellow-men  who  go  by  the  names  of  professor,  F.R. 
S.,  or  doctor.  If  the  aims  and  methods  of  an  individ¬ 
ual  inquirer  are  scientific,  no  amount  of  unscientific 
fellow-workers  can  ever  make  them  anything  else. 


20 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


In  conclusion,  we  may  take  note  of  one  other 
objection  that  has  been  brought  against  psychical 
research — that  it  unwarrantably  separates  from 
the  domain  of  psychology  facts  properly  falling 
within  its  sphere  and  takes  an  interest  in  a  number 
of  phenomena  which  are  not  psychical  but  physical 
in  their  nature  and  dependent  on  trickery  for  their 
production.  As  regards  the  first  point,  the  raison 
d’etre  of  all  science  is  ultimately  its  utility  to  the 
human  race.  So  far  as  knowledge  is  not  useful,  it 
comes  under  the  head  of  mental  gymnastics;  for 
this  kind  of  employment  it  is  clearly  immaterial 
what  its  subject  matter  is,  so  long  as  it  provides 
sufficient  scope  for  ingenuity.  Psychology  has, 
up  to  the  present,  shown  no  disposition  to  make  its 
own  the  problems  of  psychical  research ;  yet  prob¬ 
ably  no  one  will  be  found  to  deny  their  importance ; 
if  it  is  unworthy  of  science  to  go  into  these  questions, 
the  most  important  of  which  is  the  evidence  for  what 
is  generally  termed  immortality,  or  more  properly 
for  the  persistence  of  personality  after  death,  we 
can  only  feel  surprise  that  astronomers  have  been 
permitted  to  prepare  without  rebuke  the  Nautical 
Almanac,  and  that  men  of  science  should  be  found 
so  misguided  as  to  believe  that  the  task  of  relieving 
human  suffering  is  not  unworthy  of  a  doctor. 

So  long  as  psychology  considers  it  not  only  more 
important  but  its  exclusive  business,  so  far  as 


SPHERE  OF  RESEARCH 


21 


experiment  is  concerned,  to  determine  how  many 
meaningless  combinations  of  letters  can  be  remem¬ 
bered  and  reproduced  after  a  single  perusal,  or 
what  is  the  smallest  increment  perceptible  to  the 
various  senses,  and  similar  soul-absorbing  questions, 
so  long,  at  least,  will  psychical  research  justify  her 
existence,  if  no  longer.  But,  be  it  noted,  the  kind 
of  training  which  makes  a  man  a  competent  psycho- 
physicist  will  not  necessarily  make  him  a  good 
psychical  researcher,  though  of  course  it  will  he 
helpful.  Psychical  researchers  have  deliberately 
mapped  out  for  themselves  a  region  into  which  no 
self-respecting  man  of  science  thought  of  pene¬ 
trating  in  earlier  days,  or  if  one  was  so  ill  advised 
as  to  do  so,  he  quickly  learnt,  like  Sir  William 
Crookes,  how  little  right — in  his  fellow-scientists’ 
eyes — he  had  to  the  name  of  scientific  inquirer. 
The  region  may  be  ill-mapped  and  pathless,  but 
that  it  is  so  lies  at  the  door  of  that  science  which  will 
not  investigate  for  itself  and  would  forbid  others 
to  undertake  on  its  behalf  the  duty  of  determining 
how  far  the  almost  universal  belief  in  the  existence 
of  something  more  than  a  purely  physical  man  can 
be  justified  by  scientific  evidence. 

That  psychical  researchers  have  to  deal  with 
tricksters  is,  in  many  cases,  certain  and,  that  being 
so,  it  follows  that  there  is  nothing  psychological 
in  the  facts  which  are,  in  such  cases,  the  subject  of 


22 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


inquiry.  But,  in  the  first  place,  the  facts  are  in¬ 
vestigated  in  order  to  determine  whether  or  not 
trickery  is  at  the  bottom  of  them.  Psychical 
research  can  no  more  refuse  to  investigate  a  primd 
facie  case,  because  some  sage  may,  after  the  event, 
declare  that  the  facts  Avere  physiological  and  not 
psychological,  than  geology  can  refuse  to  examine 
a  fossil  that  turns  out  to  have  been  produced  by 
human  agency  in  the  twentieth  century,  or  than 
geography  can  refuse  a  hearing  to  a  de  Rougemont 
because  he  subsequently  turns  out  to  be  an  impostor. 
Even  were  it  otherwise,  though  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  any  science  can  be  denied  the  rights  of  deter¬ 
mining  what  facts  properly  fall  within  the  sphere, 
psychical  research  has  an  important  work  to  do  in 
delivering  mankind  from  superstition.  A  detailed 
analysis  of  a  fortune-teller’s  predictions  would,  if  it 
could  be  brought  to  the  notice  of  her  possible  vic¬ 
tims,  be  far  more  effective  in  securing  them  against 
her  wiles,  than  all  the  police  prosecutions  in  the 
world.  A  description  of  the  methods  by  which  a 
fashionable  medium  contrives  to  delude  her  sitters 
into  a  belief  in  her  super-normal  powers,  whether 
she  really  has  any  such  power  or  not,  would  perhaps, 
as  a  fairly  extensive  experience  assures  me,  fail  to 
carry  conviction  to  their  habitual  clients,  though 
it  might  debar  others  from  falling  into  their  clutches. 
A  demonstration  of  the  rules  by  which,  only  too 


RESEARCHERS 


23 


often,  trance  and  materializing  mediums  play 
upon  the  feelings  of  those  who  have  lost  friends 
near  and  dear  to  them,  in  order  to  make  a  profit 
out  of  the  sorrow  of  the  survivor  and  from  their 
longing  for  a  sign  of  continued  existence  of  those 
who,  it  may  be,  are  only  gone  before,  would  do 
more  to  uproot  one  of  the  most  iniquitous  traffics  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  than  all  the  scientific  ser¬ 
monizing  imaginable  about  the  folly  of  spiritualism 
and  psychical  research. 

We  recognize  that  dangerous  drugs  should  not 
be  used  except  under  the  advice  of  experts,  and 
that  the  investigation  of  their  qualities  and  phy¬ 
siological  effects  is  a  task  for  experts  only.  It  is  a 
true  saying,  though  there  may  be  exceptions  to  it, 
that  a  man  who  is  his  own  lawyer  has  a  fool  for  his 
client.  If  the  world  at  large  recognized  the  truth 
of  this  as  applied  to  psychical  research,  and  were 
content  to  leave  the  work  of  investigation  to  experts, 
and  to  submit  themselves,  when  they  are  the  sub¬ 
jects  of  investigation,  to  the  conditions  laid  down 
by  the  expert,  mankind  would  be  taken  in  far  less 
frequently  and  the  truth  in  these  matters  would  be 
reached  far  sooner. 

No  one  would  expect  to  get  the  better  of  an 
average  conjurer,  unless  he  were  himself  an  expert 
in  prestidigitation,  and  even  then  many  tricks 
would  refuse  to  yield  up  their  secrets.  Experience 


24 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


shows  that  even  acute  observers  completely  fail  to 
give  an  accurate  account  of  a  seance  with  a  con¬ 
jurer.  Their  failure  to  do  so  renders  an  explana¬ 
tion  of  the  trick  by  means  of  their  report  impossible 
or  very  nearly  so.  In  psychological  matters,  like¬ 
wise,  everything  depends  upon  accuracy,  and  ac¬ 
curacy  is  attainable  only  by  training.  It  would  be 
as  reasonable  to  expect  a  botanist  to  conduct  phy¬ 
sical  experiments  with  success  as  to  look  for  light 
from  the  amateur  in  psychical  research.  The 
botanist  recognizes  that  he  is  not  familiar  with 
physics  but,  just  as  the  fact  that  economics  is 
largely  concerned  with  buying  and  selling  deludes 
the  average  man  into  the  belief  that  his  opinion 
on  fiscal  matters  is  worth  having,  so  the  fact  that 
errery  one  is  familiar  with  his  own  mental  operations 
leads  him  to  believe  that  his  judgment  on  questions 
of  psychology  or  psychical  research  is  reliable.  If 
the  possession  of  a  mind  makes  a  man  a  psychologist, 
the  possession  of  a  body  should  make  him  an  anato¬ 
mist  and  physiologist.  But  here  the  man  in  the 
street  draws  the  line. 


CHAPTER  II 


Telepathy  a  designation,  not  a  theory 
— Possible  errors 

Telepathy  (and  telaesthesia,1  or,  as  they  might  be 
termed,  telepsychy)  is  frequently  spoken  of  as  a 
hypothesis.  Except  in  one  sense,  where  it  is 
opposed  to  a  spiritistic  interpretation  of  certain 
facts,  which  do  not  concern  us  here,  this  is  an  error ; 
it  is  not  a  theory,  but  a  designation.  It  does  not 
profess  to  explain  how  certain  phenomena  are 
caused,  but  only  states  that  they  occur  and  that 
they  do  not  appear  to  be  due  to  certain  well- 
recognized  causes,  with  the  working  of  which  the 
man  of  science  and  the  man  in  the  street  are  com¬ 
paratively  familiar.  It  is  therefore  entirely  beside 
the  mark  to  demand,  as  Professor  Jastrow2  does,  a 
telepathic  theory  which  does  not  involve  concep¬ 
tions  alien  to  physical  science  in  the  place  of  the 
hypothesis,  which  he  conceives  to  have  been  put 
forward  by  those  who  have  endeavoured  to  prove 

1  Telepathy  is  used  in  the  active  as  well  as  the  passive 
sense.  It  might  be  well  to  disregard  its  etymology  and  re¬ 
strict  it  to  the  active  sense. 

2  Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychology,  p.  iox. 

25 


26 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


experimentally  the  existence  of  thought  transfer¬ 
ence,  that  postulates  forces  and  a  method  of  working 
of  which  physics  can  form  no  conception.  The 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  was  formed  to 
investigate,  among  other  questions,  the  possibility 
of,  or  rather  the  evidence  for,  an  influence  of  mind 
on  mind  exerted  through  other  than  the  ordinary 
channels  of  the  senses.  The  mode  or  modes  by 
which  such  influence  is  exerted  are  provisionally 
termed  telepathy,  and  the  agile  mind  of  the  pro¬ 
fessional  scientist  seems  to  have  scented  in  the 
word  the  deadly  heresy  of  action  at  a  distance. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  term  no  more  implies 
it  than  do  the  harmless,  necessary  telescope,  tele¬ 
phone  and  telegraph.  That  the  term  does  not 
imply  action  at  a  distance  does  not  of  course  mean 
that  it  excludes  it,  but  the  evidence,  if  any,  for 
telergy  must  necessarily  be  subsequent  to  that  for 
telepathy.  If  science,  for  example,  were  ultimately 
compelled  to  accept  a  theory  of  action  at  a  distance 
as  an  explanation  of,  let  us  say,  gravitation,  the 
fact  of  gravitation  would,  it  is  clear,  have  been 
established  long  before  its  explanation.  In  fact,  to 
any  but  a  professional  psychologist  it  might  seem 
obvious  that,  under  ordinary  mundane  condi¬ 
tions,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  other  time 
relation  between  a  fact  and  its  explanation. 
It  is  clearly  a  somewhat  illogical  proceeding  to 


EVIDENCE 


27 


provide  the  explanation  and  then  proceed  to 
inquire  if  the  fact  to  be  explained  exists. 
Psychical  research  endeavours  to  establish  the 
fact  of  telepathy  and  might  well  be  prepared  to 
leave  the  explanation  of  it  to  future  generations. 
This  attitude,  of  course,  by  no  means  excludes 
the  possibility  that,  side  by  side  with  the  proof 
of  telepathy  may  be  put  forward  theories  or  sug¬ 
gestions  as  to  the  mode  of  action.  These  sugges¬ 
tions  may  be  rankly  heretical  in  scientific  eyes, 
or  again  they  may  attempt  to  explain  the  supposed 
facts  in  terms  of  matter  and  motion.  In  either 
case,  even  if  it  be  a  scientific  crime  to  attempt  the 
explanation  of  a  new  fact,  the  preliminary  investi¬ 
gation  seems  harmless  enough.  The  heresy,  if  any, 
lies  in  the  suggested  explanation  and  not  in  the 
proof  of  the  fact,  which  is  all  that  psychical  re¬ 
search,  as  officially  defined,  attempts  to  accomplish. 

In  a  work  which  deals  with  the  question  solely 
from  the  experimental  side,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
discuss  the  thousand  and  one  sources  of  error  to 
which  we  are  exposed  in  collecting  and  dealing 
with  spontaneous  cases.  There  are,  it  is  true, 
certain  fairly  obvious  precautions  necessary  to 
ensure  that  no  elements  drawn  from  the  ordinary 
sense  perceptions  formed  the  link  between  the  mental 
states  of  the  agent  and  the  percipient,  but  these  need 
not  detain  us  long. 


28 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Only  one  serious  source  of  error  is  likely  to  be 
present  in  reasonably  cautious  experiments — 
hypersesthesia.  We  know  little  as  to  the  ordinary 
limits  of  our  sensory  powers,  and  still  less  of  their 
limits  in  the  hypnotic  and  other  abnormal  states ; 
indications  imperceptible  even  to  the  trained  ob¬ 
server,  must  always  be  reckoned  with  when  agent 
and  subject  are  in  the  same  room,  as  an  experience 
of  M.  Bergson  will  prove.  He  showed  {Rev.  Phil., 
1886,  p.  527,  that  a  hypnotised  boy  was  able  to 
recognize  and  read  arabic  figures  reflected  in  his 
eye,  when  their  total  heights  could  not  have  been 
more  than  of  an  inch.  More  than  one  case  has 
been  recorded  in  which,  by  practice,  a  person  has 
been  able  to  recognize,  apparently  by  touch,  and 
name  a  card  drawn  at  random  from  a  pack.  In 
this  connexion  it  is  important  to  notice  that  the 
subject  is  frequently,  if  not  iijvariably,  unable  to 
say  whence  he  derives  his  knowledge,  and  that 
the  group  of  experimenters  may,  therefore,  be 
bona  fide  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  the  disturbing 
element  in  thought  transference  experiments  and 
hit  upon  it,  if  at  all,  by  chance. 

The  possibility  of  hypenesthesia  and  subcon¬ 
scious  interpretations  of  subconsciously  perceived 
indications  vitiates,  or  may  vitiate,  most,  if  not  all, 
experiments  where  the  subject  and  agent  are  within 
sight  of  each  other,  whether  directly  or  indirectly, 


EVIDENCE 


29 


by  the  means  of  reflecting  surfaces.  In  certain 
cases  the  indications  may  be  auditory  in  their 
nature,  though  up  to  the  present  the  so-called 
“  unconscious  whispering  ”  1  has  never  been  proved 
to  exist  or  to  be  a  probable  explanation  of  the 
results.  In  the  place  of  a  general  discussion  of  the 
question,  it  will  be  more  convenient  to  indicate 
in  connexion  with  each  experiment,  or  group  of 
experiments  dealt  with  at  length,  the  possible  sources 
of  error  under  this  head. 

Leaving  out  of  account  fraud,  which  should  be 
detected  by  any  reasonably  competent  investigator, 
we  have  only  one  other  source  of  error  that  need 
be  here  mentioned.  This  is  what  may  be  termed 
mental  convergence.  Ask  a  hundred  persons  to 
draw  three  diagrams,  and  the  probability  is  that  a 
majority  will  draw  a  circle,  a  square  and  a  triangle. 
This  source  of  error,  and  a  cognate  one,  arising  from 
the  natural  sequence  of  ideas  in  our  minds,  leading 
us  to  select  numbers  or  draw  diagrams  in  a  certain 
order,  which  may  be  briefly  termed  a  number-habit, 
or  a  diagram-habit,  as  the  case  may  be,  may,  of 
course,  according  to  circumstances,  operate  in  such 
a  way  as  to  decrease  the  number  of  coincidences  in 
the  mental  phenomena  of  the  subject  and  agent,  if 
their  “  habits  ”  are  different,  or  it  may  tend  to  act 
in  the  opposite  direction. 

1  Cf.  Lehmann  and  Hansen:  Uebcr  unwillkurliclies  Fliistern. 


30  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

These  errors  can,  however,  be  easily  provided 
against  by  ensuring  that  chance  and  not  deliberate 
volition  selects  for  us  the  diagram,  card,  number, 
or  what  not  that  is  to  be  transferred.  There  may 
be,  it  is  true,  residual  errors,  if  abnormalities  in  the 
cards  or  numbers  lead  to  our  unconsciously  selecting 
precisely  those  which  are  favoured  by  the  number 
or  diagram-habit  of  the  percipient.  But  this 
chance  of  error  is  fairly  remote,  and  even  the  appara¬ 
tus  of  a  psycho-physical  laboratory  might  not  pass 
through  the  ordeal  of  an  equally  searching  examin¬ 
ation  into  possible  defects,  and  whereas  errors 
arising  from  convergence  and  divergence  would  be 
equally  probable  in  a  thought  transference  series 
where  we  have  not  to  determine  absolute  values, 
the  errors  in  the  other  case  might  be  all  in  one 
direction. 

A  source  of  error  sufficiently  common  in  the 
early  days  of  investigation  into  these  matters — 
a  possibility  fully  recognized  by  the  S.P.R.  from 
the  first — was  muscle-reading.  It  may  be  laid 
down  without  danger  of  serious  error  that  any 
success  in  divining  the  agent’s  thoughts,  where 
subject  and  agent  are  in  contact,  much  more  when 
they  are  hand  in  hand,  is  largely  due  to  muscle¬ 
reading,  and  that  the  slight  unconscious  motions 
thus  sensed  and  interpreted  are  alone  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  bulk  of  the  successes.  There  may 


EVIDENCE 


3i 


be  another  element — the  telepathic — but  until 
telepathy  is  proved  to  be  a  fact,  this  cannot  be 
assumed,  and  in  any  case  the  telepathic  element 
must  always  remain  a  factor  of  uncertain  value. 
Some  of  the  successes  may  appear  too  striking  to 
be  due  to  muscle-reading  alone,  but  we  must  con¬ 
sider  that  a  considerable  number  of  people  have 
the  power  of  automatic  writing  and  drawing,  that 
although  they  are  as  unconscious  of  what  they  are 
doing  as  if  their  hands  belonged  to  a  third  person, 
they  are  no  more  unconscious  than  a  third  person, 
and  may  become  dimly  or  clearly  aware  of  the 
purport  of  the  writing  by  directing  their  attention 
to  the  movements  of  their  hands.  If  now  an 
individual  may,  by  writing,  externalize  the  ideas  in 
his  brain,  ideas  perhaps  only  present  subconsciously, 
and  become  aware  of  them  before  he  reads  the 
writing,  it  may  be  possible  for  another  person,  who 
has  himself  no  share  in  the  production  of  the  writing, 
to  do  the  same.  But  clearly  the  writing  is,  in  both 
cases,  an  entirely  subsidiary  element  in  the  case. 
The  pencil  might  be  pointless  or  non-existent  and 
the  externalization  of  the  thoughts  and  inter¬ 
pretation  of  the  signs  be  no  less  complete  than 
before,  though  the  collateral  evidence  in  the  shape 
of  the  writing  would  no  longer  be  present  to  back 
up  the  interpretation  of  the  muscular  movements. 
Possibly  an  element  of  this  description  may  have 


32  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

facilitated  the  more  striking  successes  of  the  willing 
game. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  no  ex¬ 
periment  where  contact  has  been  permitted  is  worth 
mentioning  as  evidence  of  telepathy.  I  therefore, 
include  none  such  in  the  evidence  which  I  consider 
in  the  present  work. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  subliminal — Ordinary  sense  perception — Hyp¬ 
notic  hallucinations — Trance — Clairvoyance 

The  details  of  the  experiments  and  their  import 
will  probably  be  more  easily  apprehended,  if  the 
discussion  of  them  is  preceded  by  some  account  of 
the  meaning  of  the  technical  terms  of  psychical 
research,  the  use  of  which  cannot  be  avoided  in  the 
following  pages. 

Although  it  does  not  figure  largely  in  the  present 
work,  we  may  begin  with  the  subliminal — a  term 
familiar  to  all  readers  of  the  posthumous  work  of 
F.  W.  H.  Myers,  Human  Personality.  His  views 
on  the  subject  will,  I  hope,  be  expounded  in  another 
volume  of  this  series  by  a  writer  whose  works  on 
psychical  research  have  already  done  much  to 
popularize  its  ideas.  Here  it  is  not  necessary  to 
say  more  than  will  serve  as  a  groundwork  for  what 
follows. 

We  become  aware  of  the  external  world  by  means 
of  sense  perceptions.  These  are  due  to  the  stimula¬ 
tion  of  the  retina  by  light  waves,  of  the  ear  by  air 
waves,  of  the  various  nerve  endings  in  the  ordinary 


33 


D 


34 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


skin  by  heat,  cold,  or  pressure,  and  so  on.  As  we 
shall  be  mainly  occupied  with  visual  impressions 
in  the  following  pages,  to  the  exclusion  of  sensations 
of  hearing,  touch,  taste  and  smell,  we  may  narrow 
the  field  to  be  surveyed  by  confining  ourselves  to 
this  kind  of  perception.  When  rays  of  light  fall 
upon  the  retina,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  we 
become  aware  that  they  are  so  falling,  and  this 
may  be  due  to  two  causes.  The  rays  of  light  may 
be  in  themselves  too  feeble  to  be  appreciated, 
however  much  we  may  bend  our  mind  to  the  task ; 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  our  attention  may  be  otherwise 
occupied,  and  the  stimulation  of  the  optic  nerve, 
though  sufficient  to  cause  a  change  in  our  con¬ 
sciousness,  does  not  in  fact  do  so,  because  we  are 
engaged  in  watching  something  else,  or  because 
impressions  of  another  order,  such  as  those  of  hear¬ 
ing  or  taste,  crowd  out  the  impressions  of  sight,  at 
any  rate  to  a  considerable  extent.  To  use  a  com¬ 
mon  phrase,  we  are,  in  respect  of  the  impressions 
which  fall  unheeded,  “  absent-minded.”  There  is  a 
third  reason  why  we  may  fail  to  take  up  into  our 
everyday,  waking  consciousness,  which  we  call  our 
mind,  the  impressions  which  are  transmitted  by  the 
nerves  to  the  brain,  they  may  be  of  too  short  dura¬ 
tion  to  be  understood ;  every  one  knows  how 
difficult  it  is  to  read  the  name  of  a  station  when 
our  train  rushes  through  at  full  speed.  In  the  case 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


35 


of  air  waves,  we  may  be  unable  to  distinguish  the 
particular  ones  on  which  we  concentrate  our  atten¬ 
tion,  because  they  are  drowned  by  the  multitude 
of  other  air  waves  falling  on  the  drum  of  the  ear. 
All  these  causes  may  be  operative  in  our  waking 
moments  and  in  full  possession  of  our  ordinary  wak¬ 
ing  consciousness. 

We  may  also  fail  to  perceive  the  nerve  impulses, 
or  perceive  them  only  in  a  distorted  and  unre¬ 
cognizable  form  because  we  are  not  awake.  Mes¬ 
sages  from  the  external  world  do  indeed  reach  us, 
and  we  are  often  living  in  a  world  which,  while 
it  lasts,  often  appears  to  us  fully  as  real  as  the 
external  world  of  our  waking  moments,  but  the 
world  of  our  sleeping  moments  is  the  work  of  our 
minds,  and  the  messages  from  the  outside  world 
are  only  incidental  and  do  not  necessarily  play  any 
part  in  calling  into  being  our  dream  scenery  and 
incident. 

Again,  we  may  be  neither  asleep  nor,  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  term,  awake,  but  in  a  so-called 
hypnotic  sleep.  In  this  condition,  we  may  be  as 
fully  conscious  of  the  world  around  us  as  we  are 
in  everyday  life,  and  no  intrusive  elements  may 
appear  of  which  bystanders  in  the  normal  state  are 
unaware.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  equally  hap¬ 
pen  that,  in  obedience  to-  a  hypnotic  suggestion, 
a  portion  of  the  external  world  may  disappear, 


.  36  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

or  seem  to  disappear,  for  us,  and  that  other  objects 
which  do  not  belong  to  the  external  world  of  other 
living  beings  may,  in  the  same  way,  come  into  exist¬ 
ence  for  us.  These  conditions  may  even,  as  a  result 
of  suggestion,  persist  after  the  trance  has  ceased, 
reappear  de  novo  at  a  time  fixed  by  the  hypnotizer, 
or  first  begin  to  appear  long  after  the  trance  con¬ 
dition  has  ceased.  To  take  a  few  concrete  in¬ 
stances,  a  hypnotizer  may,  given  a  sufficiently  sug¬ 
gestible  subject,  impose  upon  him  the  idea  that  a 
bystander  is  not  really  present,  and  the  hypnotic 
subject  will  not  only  not  see  him,  to  all  appearances, 
but  not  even  hear  him  speak.1  Just  as  portions 
of  the  external  world  may  be,  under  these  circum¬ 
stances,  abolished,  the  hypnotic  subject  may  likewise 
take  for  portions  of  the  external  world  figures  or 
other  objects  of  sense  whose  presence  is  suggested 
to  him. 

The  important  point  to  notice  in  the  present 
connexion  is  that  these  hallucinations,  negative 
and  positive,  are  not  necessarily  dependent  on  the 
state  of  consciousness  in  which  the  subject  is  at  the 
moment  of  the  suggestion  being  realized.  I  may, 
for  example,  suggest  to  a  patient  that  he  will  see 
me  six  months  hence  come  into  his  dining  room, 

1  There  is  some  reason  to  suppose  that  the  unconsciousness 
of  presence  is  not  absolute.  The  subject  will  be  discussed 
in  the  volume  on  hypnotism. 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


37 


say  good  morning,  and  disappear  up  the  chimney, 
and,  if  he  is  susceptible,  the  scene  in  question  will 
really  be  enacted,  so  far  as  his  consciousness  at  the 
moment  is  concerned,  though  it  may  happen  that 
he  will  forget  all  about  it  in  a  short  time,  just  as  we 
frequently  forget  our  dreams,  which  at  the  moment 
of  waking  seemed  vivid  enough. 

Lorgetfulness  is  a  common  phenomenon,  too 
common  in  fact,  and  it  has,  in  general,  no  impor¬ 
tance  for  the  subject  under  discussion.  The  rapid 
and  complete  forgetfulness,  however,  of  the  in¬ 
cidents  of  the  hypnotic  trance,  of  the  post-hypnotic 
phenomena,  and  of  the  dream  world  into  which 
we  pass  or  may  pass  every  night,  to  emerge  from  it 
the  next  morning  in  the  space  of  a  few  seconds1  or 
less,  stands  on  a  different  plane.  We  have  here 
to  do  with  what  we  may  term  a  split-off  portion 
of  consciousness,  another  example  of  which  is  seen 
in  the  cases,  seldom  recorded  till  towards  the  last 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  of  so-called 
secondary  personality,  a  milder  form  of  which  is 
seen  in  the  cases  not  uncommonly  reported  in  the 
papers,  where  the  memory  of  the  past  life  has  van¬ 
ished,  largely  if  not  completely,  but  is  not  replaced 
by  the  appearance  of  another  personality  to  replace 
the  lost  one,  nor  by  the  assumption  of  another 

1  Some  French  experiments  on  this  subject  go  to  show  that 
their  duration  may  be  measured  by  tenths  instead  of  whole 
seconds. 


38  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


name;  the  subject  is  simply  lost  and  remains  so 
until,  by  hypnotism  or  other  means,  the  gap  between 
past  life  and  present  consciousness  is  bridged  over. 

Now  the  interesting  point  about  these  split-off 
portions  of  our  consciousness  is  that  their  existence 
does  not  seem  to  be  confined  to  the  dream  state 
or  the  hypnotic  trance.  Indeed,  the  mere  fact  that 
post-hypnotic  phenomena  of  the  kind  mentioned 
above,  can  be  produced  when  the  ordinary  con¬ 
sciousness  is  entirely  ignorant  both  of  the  sugges¬ 
tion  and  of  its  fulfilment,  is  proof  positive  that  this 
is  so  in  the  case  of  such  subjects  as  are  susceptible  to 
this  kind  of  suggestion. 

Another  illustration  of  this  same  point  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  sense  impressions  to  which 
allusion  was  made  at  the  opening  of  the  chapter, 
which  are  too  faint,  or  for  other  reasons  do  not 
rise  above  the  threshold  of  the  ordinary  conscious¬ 
ness,  may  by  suitable  means  be  recalled  by  certain 
persons,  not  indeed  by  the  ordinary  process  of  re¬ 
membering  them,  but  by  doing  what  is  irreverently 
termed  “  putting  the  subliminal  on  tap.”  To 
take  a  few  examples,  if  by  means  of  a  suitable 
arrangement  a  subject  is  allowed  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  a  word  or  series  of  words,  letters  or  numbers, 
which  are,  however,  exposed  for  too  short  a  time 
to  permit  their  meaning  to  be  realized  or  their  order 
to  be  recalled,  it  is  nevertheless  possible  to  reproduce 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


39 


them  exactly  as  if  the  subject  had  been  allowed 
full  leisure  to  read  and  memorize  them.  Given 
a  subject  who  can  write  automatically  by  means 
of  planchette  (or  simply  by  holding  a  pencil  between 
the  fingers  and  allowing  the  hand  to  move  ap¬ 
parently  at  random)  and  the  words  in  question 
may  be  written  down  as  if  they  had  been  seen  or 
heard  with  perfect  distinctness.  A  friend  of  mine 
was  once  on  a  tour  in  America  with  a  large  party 
which  included  some  automatic  writers.  One  day 
they  resolved  to  try  some  experiments.  One  of  these 
was  to  place  an  automatic  writer  at  one  end  of 
a  car  in  a  room  by  herself,  then  came  the  rest  of 
the  party,  in  the  central  portion  of  the  car,  with 
instructions  to  shout  at  the  top  of  their  voices, 
which  they  carried  out  in  a  way  that  would  effectu¬ 
ally  drown  any  human  voice  even  without  assist¬ 
ance  of  the  noise  of  the  moving  train ;  then,  at  the 
other  end  of  the  car  to  the  automatic  writer,  came 
the  experimenter;  he  had  provided  himself  with  a 
book  which  he  read  aloud,  and  the  passage  selected 
contained  a  sufficient  number  of  uncommon  words 
to  make  it  very  unlikely  that  they  would  be  re¬ 
produced  by  a  mere  coincidence  by  the  automatic 
writing.  At  the  close  of  the  experiment  the  passage 
in  question  was  compared  with  the  automatic 
script,  and  sufficient  correspondence  was  discovered 
to  establish  beyond  question  the  fact  that  the 


40 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


writing-  was  not  independent  of  the  selected  passage, 
of  which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  the  writer  had  been 
carefully  kept  in  ignorance. 

In  the  same  way,  facts  which  have  come  under 
our  eyes  without  reaching  our  minds  may  be  re¬ 
produced.  Thus  there  is  the  oft-quoted  case  of 
the  lady  who  held  in  front  of  her  face,  to  shield 
it  from  the  fire,  a  copy  of  the  Times.  A  few  hours 
later  she  looked  into  a  crystal  and  was  surprised 
to  read  there  the  announcement  of  a  death  which 
was  subsequently  found  to  be  contained  in  the  obit¬ 
uary  column. 

The  whole  of  this  fascinating  subject  of  the 
subliminal  has  been  studied  in  great  detail  in  the 
Proc.  S.P.R.,  by  F.  W.  H  Myers,  and  in  a  more 
condensed  form  in  his  work  on  Human  Personality. 
For  further  details  we  must  refer  inquirers  to  these 
works  pending  the  appearance  of  other  volumes  in 
the  present  series. 

The  importance  of  the  subliminal  for  our  present 
purpose  is  twofold.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  from  the 
subliminal,  the  portion  of  our  consciousness 
“  below  the  threshold,”  or  perhaps  better  “  beyond 
the  threshold,”  that  thoughts  and  pictures  arise,'  as 
we  shall  see  more  in  detail  in  the  next  chapter. 

It  is  on  the  analysis  of  the  content  of  these  im¬ 
pressions,  mental  and  sensory,  and  of  the  correspond¬ 
ing  motor  automatisms,  and  on  the  comparison  of 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


4i 


the  results  with  the  ideas  present  in  the  mind  of 
another  person  or  persons,  that  the  case  for  tele¬ 
pathy  rests.  The  person  who  is  endeavouring 
to  transfer  thoughts  or  impressions  is  termed  the 
agent,  the  receiver  is  called  the  percipient. 

In  the  second  place,  there  is  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  primd  facie  telepathic  impressions,  the 
impressions  communicated  by  other  means  than 
ordinary  sensory  methods,  depend  for  their  com¬ 
munication  in  some  way  on  the  subliminal  con¬ 
sciousness.  How  this  happens  we  cannot  of  course 
say,  and  the  hyper-sensitiveness  of  the  subliminal,  of 
which  a  few  illustrations  have  been  given  above, 
must,  of  course,  put  us  on  our  guard  against  possible 
errors  of  observation.  For  it  must  be  noted  that 
we  are,  as  a  rule,  unaware  of  how  such  sub-conscious 
impressions  reach  us  (see  Proc.  S.P.R.  iv.  532; 
Journ.  S.P.R.  i.  84;  and  Mrs.  Verrall’s  remarks  on 
the  same  subject  in  Proc.  S.P.R.  vii.  193).  As 
an  example  of  the  importance  of  this  subliminal 
communication,  if  we  may  so  term  it  without 
prejudging  the  case,  may  be  mentioned  the  cases 
given  on  pp.  28  and  81. 

The  interest  of  the  subliminal  for  us  is,  however, 
not  entirely  exhausted  by  these  two  points.  Not 
only  shall  we  have  occasion  to  deal  with  evidence 
drawn  from  dreams,  which  constitute,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  common  form  of  split-off  consciousness, 


42  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

but  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  in  some  detail 
to  trance  phenomena.  A  person  who  falls  into 
trance  spontaneously  is,  in  many  respects,  in  a 
similar  position  to  a  hypnotized  subject.  There 
is  unconsciousness  of  the  events  of  the  trance  on 
awakening,  and  there  is  the  existence  of  an  appar¬ 
ently  normally  constituted  personality  or  personal¬ 
ties,  who  usually  claim  to  be  the  spirits  of  deceased 
relatives,  or  other  dead  persons,  who  take  advantage 
of  the  absence  of  the  medium’s  spirit  to  take  pos¬ 
session  of  her  body  and  communicate  with  this  ter¬ 
restrial  sphere  again.  As  to  the  evidence  in  support 
of  this  claim,  nothing  need  be  said  in  the  present 
volume.  All  that  is  necessary  here  is  to  make  clear 
what  happens  in  the  trance. 

These  trance  personalities  manifest  themselves 
in  much  the  same  way  as  the  ordinary  subliminal, 
and  there  can  be  no  possible  doubt  that  they  are, 
in  most  cases,  the  result  of  a  sort  of  dramatic  instinct 
on  the  part  of  the  human  subliminal,  which  leads 
it  to  dress  itself  up  in  a  way  that  it  hopes  will  be 
interesting  to  its  auditors.  They  communicate 
sometimes  by  word  of  mouth,  sometimes  by  auto¬ 
matic  writing,  sometimes  by  both  simultaneously, 
sometimes  even  by  speech,  by  ordinary  right  hand 
writing  and  by  mirror  writing  produced  by  the 
left  hand,  all  at  the  same  time,  the  subjects  of  the 
three  communications  being  absolutely  distinct. 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


43 


The  subject  of  clairvoyance  is  not  directly  con¬ 
nected  with  that  of  telepathy,  but  inasmuch  as  it 
would  throw  some  doubt,  if  proved  to  exist,  on  the 
evidence  for  telepathy  or  rather  on  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  it,  we  cannot  pass  over  it  here.  Clairvoyance 
is  a  term  used  in  a  variety  of  meanings,  but  we 
are  here  concerned  only  with  clairvoyance  proper, 
or  lucidity,  that  is  to  say  with  the  perception 
of  objects  directly  without  the  intervention  of 
the  ordinary  nervous  processes.  The  evidence 
for  any  such  faculty  is  very  slight  and  the  possi¬ 
bilities  of  mal-experimentation  so  large  that  it 
would  hardly  be  worth  discussing  were  it  not  that 
one  of  the  chief  experimenters  has  been  Professor 
Richet,  whose  records  are  usually  so  ample  as  to 
permit  us  to  form  an  opinion  as  to  the  precautions 
taken  to  obviate  false  results. 

The  first  series  of  experiments  was  made  by 
M.  Richet  in  the  winter  of  1887-1888  with  a  number 
of  diagrams,  the  nature  of  which  was  unknown 
to  any  person  present,  shut  up  in  opaque  envelopes, 
which  were  only  opened  after  the  guess  had  been 
made.  It  is  true  that  in  a  certain  number  of  cases 
Professor  Richet  had  been  himself  the  draughtsman ; 
after  drawing  the  diagrams  he  had  put  them  away 
and  was,  so  far  as  he  knew,  absolutely  unaware 
of  their  nature.  But  it  is  clear  that  these  trials 
must  be  eliminated ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  say  that 


44 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


some  part  of  his  mind  was  not  cognisant  of  their 
nature — the  subliminal  has  a  marvellous  memory — 
consequently  it  cannot  be  affirmed  that  the  experi¬ 
ments  in  which  these  were  used  do  not,  so  far  as  they 
are  successful,  point  to  telepathy  rather  than  clair¬ 
voyance.  Of  the  forty-one  diagrams  which  he  pub¬ 
lishes  as  being  whole  or  partial  successes,  only  two 
are  of  this  nature;  the  remaining  thirty-nine  were 
drawn  by  a  personal  friend  of  M.  Richet’s,  sent  to 
him,  and  utilised  unopened. 

Of  the  experiments  tried  under  these  conditions, 
about  26  per  cent,  were,  according  to  M.  Richet’s 
estimate,  more  or  less  successful.  I  have  noted 
seven  as  being  particularly  close;  some  of  these  I 
reproduce  (PI.  I.).  In  order  to  test  the  possibilities 
of  chance  coincidence,  a  series  of  guesses,  amounting 
in  all  to  over  5,000,  were  made  and  the  proportion 
of  successes  calculated;  they  amounted  to  between 
3  per  cent,  and  4  per  cent.  The  difference  is  there¬ 
fore  sufficiently  marked.  It  must  not,  however,  be 
forgotten  that,  in  the  experiments  proper,  the  whole 
series  amounted  to  only  180,  a  number  which  may 
give  results  differing  very  widely  from  the  average  of 
a  larger  number  of  trials.  On  the  other  hand,  even 
here,  it  is  impossible  to  say  that  telepathy  was 
altogether  excluded.  M.  Richet  does  not  indeed 
consider  this  possibility,  which  is  at  best  very 
remote.  It  cannot,  however,  be  overlooked  that 


[Plate  I. 


PROF.  RICHET’S  EXPERIMENTS. 


To  face  p.  44. 


1.  DIAGRAM^  2.  REPRODUCTIONS. 
[Reduced  to  one-half.] 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


45 


a  human  being  was  conscious  of  the  contents  of  the 
envelopes.  That  this  knowledge  should  be  com¬ 
municated  to  M.  Richet,  in  the  absence  of  the 
person  in  whose  mind  the  knowledge  was,  is  highly 
improbable,  and  the  telepathic  processes  demanded 
by  such  an  hypothesis  are  complicated  in  the 
extreme.  We  are,  however,  not  entitled  to  exclude 
any  hypothesis  merely  on  the  ground  that  it  seems 
to  us  improbable.  Consequently  the  experiments  in 
question  do  not  seem  to  be  above  criticism. 

More  satisfactory  were  the  conditions  in  another 
series  tried  by  Professor  Richet  in  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1888.  The  subject  on  whom  the  ex¬ 
periments  were  tried  was  one  whose  name  will 
be  quoted  in  connexion  with  experiments  to  be 
dealt  with  subsequently — Leonie  B.  She  was 
hypnotized  by  the  experimenter  and  kept  in  the 
trance  state  on  some  occasions  from  8  p.m.  till  6 
a.m.,  during  the  whole  of  which  time  Professor 
Richet  sat  by  her.  The  objects  used  were  cards, 
drawn  from  a  mixture  of  ten  packets  of  fifty-two 
cards  each.  No  card  was  used  a  second  time. 

In  order  to  prevent  the  subject  from  seeing  the 
card  before  it  was  placed  in  the  envelope.  Professor 
Richet  drew  it  at  a  distance  of  sixteen  feet  from 
her;  in  addition  she  had  her  back  turned  and  the 
light  was  low.  The  card  was  drawn  and  placed 
as  rapidly  as  possible  in  a  so-called  opaque  envelope, 


46 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


gummed  down  and  given  to  the  medium.  During 
the  experiment,  which  sometimes  lasted  for  two 
or  three  hours,  Professor  Richet,  as  may  be  im¬ 
agined,  sometimes  took  his  eyes  off  the  subject,  but 
never  for  long  enough  to  permit  of  any  manipulation 
of  the  envelope,  much  less  of  the  precise  procedure 
necessary  to  open  and  reclose  it  without  leaving 
any  trace  of  the  operation. 

Leonie's  procedure  was  as  follows.  Taking  the 
envelope  in  her  hands  she  held  it  between  them  and 
drew  on  a  sheet  of  paper  diagrams  of  the  various 
suits ;  then  she  counted  on  her  fingers  to  ascertain 
the  number  of  the  pips,  the  process  being  repeated 
ad  nauseam,  till  she  finally  made  up  her  mind. 
There  is  no  reason  whatever  to  question  the  good 
faith  of  Leonie,  as  a  general  rule,  but  we  cannot 
assume  the  good  faith  of  hypnotized  or  any  other 
subjects,  when  it  is  possible  to  conduct  the  experi¬ 
ments  otherwise,  without  by  so  doing  weakening 
their  evidential  character.  It  is  therefore  unfor¬ 
tunate  that,  in  these  laborious  and  wearisome 
experiments,  Professor  Richet  not  only  allowed 
Leonie  to  open  the  envelope  herself  on  some  occa¬ 
sions,  but  even  omitted  to  note  on  what  occasions 
she  did  so.  At  the  same  time  we  can  hardly  suppose 
that  she  was  prepared  with  a  card,  to  which  she 
made  her  guess  correspond.  For  in  the  first  place 
it  is  very  unlikely  that  she  would  have  delayed  her 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


47 


answer  so  long.  In  the  second  place  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  she  possessed  the  conjuring 
ability  necessary  to  palm  off  a  secreted  card  and 
replace  the  card  in  the  envelope  by  it,  and  this  at 
a  distance  of  about  a  foot  from  a  person  who  was 
observing  her  closely.  As  a  rule,  the  card  was 
enclosed  in  one  envelope  which,  although  practi¬ 
cally  opaque  so  far  as  transmitted  light  was  con¬ 
cerned,  was  not  entirely  so  for  reflected  light. 
Leonie  does  not  appear,  however,  to  have  scrutinized 
it  in  a  way  that  suggested  that  she  availed  herself 
of  this  circumstance ;  she  was,  moreover,  in  a  dim 
light  until  she  made  her  guess  and  approached 
Professor  Richet,  at  the  end  of  the  trial,  to  show  him 
that  the  envelope  was  intact,  and  it  was  necessary 
for  the  light  to  be  strong — full  sunshine  or  a  power¬ 
ful  lamp — for  anything  to  be  detected  in  an  ordinary 
way.  Moreover,  during  the  last  twenty-two  trials 
there  was  a  second  envelope,  and  we  may  assume 
that  this  was  sufficient  to  prevent  anything  in 
the  way  of  ordinary  vision  from  giving  information 
as  to  the  card.  Yet  in  four  out  of  the  twenty-two 
trials  the  card  was  correctly  named. 

In  all,  out  of  sixty-eight  trials  twelve  cards  were 
named  by  Leonie,  the  probability  being  that  she 
would  guess  one  or  two,  if  no  cause  other  than 
“  chance  ”  operated.  The  number  of  suits  guessed 
was  thirty-six  against  a  probable  seventeen. 


48 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


When  we  look  at  the  experiments  in  detail,  the 
probability  of  some  unrecognized  cause  being  in 
operation  is  seen  to  be  enormous.  In  the  sixty- 
eight  trials  a  full  description  of  the  card  was  offered 
only  seventeen  times;  in  two  cases  the  description 
was  incomplete;  out  of  the  remaining  fifteen  cards 
twelve  were  rightly  named,  and  in  the  three  other 
cases  king  of  hearts  was  named  for  ten  of  hearts, 
knave  of  spades  for  knave  of  hearts  and  queen  of 
diamonds  for  queen  of  hearts. 

A  further  series  of  experiments  was  tried  in  which 
the  errors  above  alluded  to  were  avoided.  The  results 
were,  however,  much  less  striking.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  evidence  of  a  power  to  select  the  court 
cards,  seven  out  of  nine  named  cards  being  correct. 

On  the  whole  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  ex¬ 
periments  go  very  far  to  prove  anything  of  the 
nature  of  clairvoyance.  Indeed  it  may  be  said 
that  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  of  X-rays, 
and  other  waves,  we  can  not  be  certain  that  they 
are  imperceptible  to  the  hypersesthetic.  The  ex¬ 
periences  with  N-rays  in  fact  seem  to  point  to 
considerable  variation  in  this  respect  in  human 
vision,  unless  indeed  we  prefer  to  take  the  view 
that  the  supposed  rays  are  a  product  of  the  imagina¬ 
tion  and  have  no  objective  existence.  Rays  of  some 
sort  may  have  given  information  as  to  the  card  in 
the  envelope. 


THE  SUBLIMINAL 


49 


It  is  equally  impossible  to  be  certain  that 
hyperaesthesia  of  touch  would  not  enable  the 
medium  to  detect  the  very  slight  differences  of 
elevation  which  must  be  present,  especially  in 
court  cards.  On  the  whole,  therefore,  the  value 
of  the  experiments  of  Professor  Richet,  so  far  as 
regards  clairvoyance,  must  be  regarded  as  small. 

The  same  remark  applies  to  experiments  in 
guessing  the  numbers  and  suits  of  cards,  and  details 
of  some  experiments  in  this  by  Mrs.  Verrall  will 
be  found  in  Proc.  S.P.R.,  vii.  174,  sq.  Mrs. 
Verrall,  who  is  a  most  careful  experimenter,  did  not, 
it  should  be  noted,  regard  them  as  having  any  bear¬ 
ing  on  the  question  of  clairvoyance,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  subject  was,  in  all  cases,  able  to  see 
the  card,  if  indeed  she  did  not  actually  draw  it.  The 
same  is  true  of  a  striking  series  of  experiments 
by  Mr.  Y.,  given  at  the  end  of  Mrs.  Verrall's 
paper.  Bearing  in  mind  the  already  mentioned 
long  memory  of  the  subliminal,  together  with  a 
possible  hyperaesthesia,  which  is  certainly  present 
in  some  cases,  we  see  that  there  is  no  ground  for  as¬ 
suming  that  any  but  the  ordinary  operation  of  the 
senses,  ordinary  that  is,  in  respect  of  species,  though 
extraordinary  in  respect  of  practical  efficiency,  is 
needed  to  explain  the  results. 

At  the  same  time,  probable  though  this  explana¬ 
tion  be,  we  are  bound  -to  recognize  that,  both  in 

E 


50 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


these  cases  and  in  the  experiments  o£  M.  Richet, 
the  possibility  of  what  we  have  termed  clairvoyance 
has  not  been  excluded,  cannot  in  fact  be  excluded. 
It  would  be  of  the  highest  interest  if  some  one  who 
finds  him  or  herself  possessed  of  this  power  of 
guessing  cards  would  try  a  series  of  experiments 
specially  directed  towards  elucidating  the  question 
of  the  modus  operandi. 

When  we  come  to  deal  with  certain  of  the  ex¬ 
periments  in  detail,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  an 
extraordinary  difference  between  the  results  at¬ 
tained  when  the  agent  and  percipient  are  in  the 
same  room  and  those  reached  when  they  are  in 
different  rooms.  It  is  of  course  far  more  probable 
that  some  simpler  cause  is  at  work — the  nature  of 
which  will  be  suggested  when  the  experiments  in 
question  are  reached.  At  the  same  time  it  is  well 
to  bear  in  mind  that  our  knowledge  of  the  human 
mind  is  very  limited  and  that  much  of  the  evidence 
for  telepathy  at  close  quarters  might  in  reality  point 
in  another  direction. 


CHAPTER  IV 


How  zvc  become  aware  of  subliminal  ideas — Mental 
impressions — Visions  and  hallucinations — Auto¬ 
matic  writing 

We  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter  that  some  im¬ 
pressions,  too  faint  to  enter  our  consciousness  in 
the  ordinary  way,  are  relegated  to  the  subliminal 
region  of  our  minds  and  perhaps  stick  there,  if  the 
subliminal  is  not  “  put  on  tap  ”  in  some  way.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  may  slowly  emerge  into  our 
ordinary  consciousness,  and  we  become  aware  of 
them  by  a  roundabout  route.  It  happens  probably 
to  most  people  that  in  walking  along  the  street  they 
hear  words  the  meaning  of  which  they  do  not  appre¬ 
ciate.  Especially  if  they  have  been  living  abroad 
and  are  familiar  with  a  foreign  language  does  it 
happen  that  sentences  are  heard  as  meaningless 
collections  of  syllables  which  afterwards  straighten 
themselves  out  and  become  intelligible,  although  the 
hearer  may  have  been  in  doubt  as  to  what  language 
they  were  in  and  have  looked  for  a  clue  in  the  wrong 
direction. 

It  has  been  indicated  that  there  is  some  ground 
for  supposing  that  subliminal  ideas  are  specially 


51 


52 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


important  in  experiments  which  go  to  prove  the 
existence  of  telepathy.  In  the  present  chapter  we 
shall  survey  some  of  the  methods  by  which  the 
subject  may  either  become  directly  aware  of  these 
subliminal  ideas  or  may  so  externalize  them  as  to 
bring  them  to  the  notice  at  once  of  bystanders  and 
of  themselves.  These  methods  are  three  in  number. 
The  first  two  result  in  the  subject  alone  becoming 
aware  of  the  images  or  ideas.  They  are  respectively 
mental  impressions  and  sensory  automatisms. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  deal  at  length  with  mental 
impressions.  Every  one  is  aware  that  ideas  come 
into  the  mind  without  our  being  at  the  moment 
conscious  of  their  origin.  Knowledge  arrived  at 
by  means  of  the  ordinary  senses,  as  the  experi¬ 
ments  of  M.  Bergson  prove  {Rev.  Phil.  1886,  p. 
127),  may  enter  our  consciousness  without  our  be¬ 
ing  aware  of  how  it  got  there.  Or,  to  take  another 
example,  we  endeavour  in  vain  to  recall  a  name  or 
a  word  and  finally  give  up  the  attempt.  In  a  few 
minutes,  it  frequently  happens,  the  desired  name 
or  word  comes  into  our  mind  without  any  conscious 
effort. 

It  is  clearly  immaterial  how  the  idea  which  rises 
to  the  surface  reached  the  brain  of  the  subject, 
whether  by  ordinary  perceptive  processes  or  by 
some  other  method.  If  there  is  such  a  way  of 
learning  facts  or  getting  impressions  as  that  which 


MENTAL  IMAGES 


53 


is  designated  telepathy,  these  facts  or  impressions 
may  manifest  themselves  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  percipient  in  just  the  same  way  as  any  other  ideas 
originally  confined  to  the  subliminal  region. 

Our  second  class  is  known  to  psychologists  as 
sensory  automatisms.  It  includes  such  phenomena 
as  crystal  visions,  hallucinations,  pseudo-hallucina¬ 
tions  and  mental  images,  and,  finally,  dreams. 

When  we  look  at  an  object,  especially  a  bright 
object,  and  then  close  our  eyes,  we  commonly  see 
what  is  termed  an  “  after-image.”  With  these  and 
ordinary  sense  perceptions  we  have  nothing  to  do. 

MENTAL  IMAGES 

Many  people  are  able  at  will  to  call  up  before  their 
mind’s  eye  the  picture  of  an  object  or  a  scene,  which 
they  have  once  beheld,  with  all  the  vividness  with 
which  they  are  commonly  seen  in  a  dream.  Others, 
among  whom  I  am  included,  are  unable  to  visualize, 
as  it  is  technically  termed,  or  are  only  able  to  do  so 
imperfectly,  possibly  only  at  intervals.  So  far  as 
I  am  aware,  I  have  only  once  been  able  to  visualize 
at  will  during  my  ordinary  waking  moments,  and 
then  the  object  which  I  called  up  before  me  was 
no  more  inspiring  than  an  ordinary  cane-bottomed 
chair.  Just  as,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  the  life  of  the 
dog  must  be  very  largely  made  up  of  sensations 
of  smell,  and  his  recollections  present  themselves 


54  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

to  him  in  the  form  of  smells  and  possibly  tastes,  so 
the  recollections  of  the  visualizer  seem  to  present 
themselves  in  the  form  of  mental  pictures.  But 
mental  pictures  also  flow  across  the  visual  field 
without  their  being  consciously  called  up,  and  a 
subliminal  idea  which  is  the  result  of  a  telepathic 
message  may  manifest  itself  in  the  form  of  a  mental 
image.  An  interesting  experiment  with  this  form 
of  perception  will  be  found  on  p.  148. 

These  mental  pictures  are  clearly  recognized  as 
things  of  the  mind.  In  technical  language  they 
are  not  externalized.  In  addition  to  these  non- 
externalized  cases,  we  have  several  distinct  classes 
of  visual  perceptions,  which  appear  to  be  located 
among  the  actual  surroundings  of  the  percipient 
and  consequently  must  count  as  externalized.  It 
must  be  understood  that  there  is  no  hard  and  fast 
line  of  demarcation  however.  Between  the  mental 
images  and  the  externalized  vision  or  hallucination 
come  a  class  of  phenomena  which  are  termed 
illusions  hypnagogiques.  Before  one  is  wholly  asleep 
or  wholly  awake,  a  half  dream  state  seems  to  super¬ 
vene  in  some  persons,  which  is  characterized  by  the 
appearance  of  pictures,  frequently  faces,  before 
their  eyes,  which  may  be  closed  or  not.  In  some 
people  they  are  very  rare ;  I  have,  for  example,  only 
once  seen  anything  of  the  sort — a  weird  procession 
of  eyes,  lions’  eyes,  crocodiles’  eyes,  snakes’  eyes, 


VISIONS 


55 


an  interminable  series,  due  to  no  cause,  mental  or 
physical,  that  I  could  trace.  In  others  again  they 
seem  to  be  a  normal  sign  of  approaching  sleep. 
They  are  more  than  mere  memory  images,  but  yet 
not  fully  externalized. 

VISIONS 

Coming  now  to  the  next  class,  that  of 
externalized  pictures,  we  have  first  of  all  visions, 
that  is  to  say,  pictures  which  appear  to  occupy  a 
place  among  the  surroundings  of  the  percipient,  but 
not  to  he  of  them.  As  an  example  of  this  class  we 
may  quote  a  case  published  some  ten  years  ago 
in  the  Report  of  the  International  Census  on  Hallu¬ 
cinations.  A  lady,  Mrs.  B.,  was  in  Italy  and  en¬ 
gaged  in  no  more  exciting  occupation  than  giving 
her  children  their  dinner.  She  was  just  standing 
over  a  tureen  of  milk  and  maccaroni,  when  she 
happened  to  look  at  the  wall  in  front  of  her  and 
saw  it  apparently  open.  The  scene  that  presented 
itself  to  her  was  a  bedroom  in  a  house  that  was 
very  familiar  to  her ;  on  the  bed  lay  the  corpse  of  her 
mother  with  flowers  on  her  breast.  It  subsequently 
turned  out  that  the  mother  had  died  six  days  before 
and  been  buried  at  the  time  Mrs.  B.  saw  the  vision. 
She  had  not  been  informed  of  her  mother’s  death, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  she  had  quarrelled  with  her 
family  and  left  England  without  giving  an  address. 

Another  class  of  visions  is  the  kind  which  is  seen 


5 6  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

in  crystals,  bright  surfaces,  water,  ink,  or,  which 
brings  it  very  near  the  illusions  hypnagogiques,  in 
black  boxes  or  other  dark  spaces.  These  visions 
are  sometimes  so  extraordinarily  life-like,  that  I  have 
seen  people  who  experienced  them  for  the  first 
time  thoroughly  puzzled  and  suspicious  of  some 
trick  by  which  living  pictures  were  in  some  way 
produced  in  the  crystal. 

HALLUCINATIONS 

Besides  visions,  our  externalized  pictures  may 
also  take  the  form  of  hallucinations.  As  a  technical 
term  hallucination  simply  means  an  object  of  sense 
perception  or  percept  which  is  not  due  to  any  ex¬ 
ternal  cause,  though  it  seems  to  be  so  due  and  can 
only  be  recognized  as  lacking  the  external  cause  with 
which  we  associate  it  when  we  come  to  analyse  it. 
The  term  hallucination  has  unpleasant  associations 
for  some  people  and  suggests  ideas  of  delirium  tre¬ 
mens,  lunacy,  and  all  manner  of  objectionable  things. 
It  must  lie  remembered  that,  as  a  technical  term 
of  psychical  research,  it  has  no  necessary  connexion 
with  anything  morbid.  No  one  will,  for  example, 
be  alarmed  because  he  happens  to  dream ;  but  a  dream 
is,  technically,  an  hallucination  and  a  particularly 
good  example  of  one,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  few  mo¬ 
ments.  In  our  dreams  we  form  part  of  an  hal¬ 
lucinatory  picture,  talk  to  the  hallucinatory  person- 


HALLUCINATIONS 


57 


ages  whom  we  have  conjured  up,  move  about  in  the 
hallucinatory  scenery,  and  so  on.  In  fact,  it  is  only 
rarely  that  we  recognize  before  awakening  that  it  is 
a  dream. 

The  hallucinations  of  our  waking  moments  are 
much  rarer  than  those  of  sleep,  and  consequently  far 
more  likely  to  make  an  impression.  At  the  same 
time,  the  fact  that  we  are  awake  makes  it  far  easier 
to  remember  and  note  down  the  exact  details.  This 
form  of  hallucination  is  therefore  particularly 
valuable  evidentially.  In  waking  hallucinations 
it  usually  happens  that  only  a  single  figure  or  portion 
of  the  scene  is  hallucinatory,  and  herein  lies  its 
chief  difference  from  the  dream.  The  dream  figures, 
for  such  they  may  be  called,  which  we  see  during  our 
waking  moments,  move  about  in  our  ordinary 
surroundings  and  appear  to  form  part  of  them.  In 
fact,  it  may  be  that  only  on  reflection  do  we  discover 
that  they  are  dream  figures.  The  best  example  of 
this  class  of  hallucinations  is  the  common  ghost, 
and  by  that  I  mean,  not  the  ghost  of  Christmas 
stories,  which  clanks  chains  and  looks  with  mournful 
and  despairing  eyes  at  you ;  real  ghosts  are  far  too 
unconscious  of  their  surroundings1  to  do  anything 

1  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  in  the  case  of  the  real  ghost 
there  is  anything  of  the  nature  of  the  material  or  imma¬ 
terial  being  occupying  the  space  where  the  figure  is  seen. 
The  series  will  include  a  volume  on  ghosts,  in  which  the 
matter  will  be  fully  discussed. 


58 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


rational  as  a  rule ;  the  ghost  of  which  you  hear  when 
you  get  a  story  at  first  hand  is  an  object  that  is 
frequently  in  many  respects  like  a  living  person,  but 
is  discovered  to  differ  from  the  ordinary  human 
being  by  a  trick  that  it  has  of  disappearing  in  an 
unaccountable  way,  or  perhaps  of  fading  away  before 
your  eyes. 


ILLUSIONS 

For  the  sake  of  completeness,  we  may  mention 
illusions.  Illusions  differ  from  hallucinations  in 
that  they  are  interpretations  of  real  objects  and  not 
wholly  the  work  of  the  mind.  How  far  any  hallu¬ 
cinations,  except  dreams,  come  under  this  category 
it  is  hard  to  say.  Probably  many  that  eventually 
act  in  every  way  independently  of  the  spot  at  which 
they  were  first  seen,  may  have  had'a  so-called  point 
de  repere  in  the  first  instance,  round  which  they 
formed,  just  as  the  crystal  vision  is  often  initiated 
by  the  specks  in  the  crystal  globe. 

Examples  of  most  kinds  of  hallucinations 
which  cannot  be  discussed  in  detail  here,  will  be 
found  in  the  experiments  cited  in  the  discussion  of 
the  evidence  for  telepathy. 

MOTOR  AUTOMATISM 

Besides  these  sensory  automatisms  just  dis¬ 
cussed,  we  shall  have  to  deal  with  examples 


MOTOR  AUTOMATISM 


59 


of  motor  automatism.  By  this  is  meant  an  im¬ 
pulse,  not  proceeding  from  a  conscious  volition, 
which  results  in  the  production  of  writing  by  means 
of  planchette  or  otherwise,  of  table  tipping,  of  the 
production  of  movements  in  the  divining  rod  and 
of  similar  phenomena.  Just  as  in  sensory  auto¬ 
matisms  an  impulse  comes  up  from  some  uncon¬ 
scious  stratum  of  our  personality  that  results  in 
an  impression  being  made  on  our  minds  which 
exactly  resembles  normal  sense  perception,  so  in 
motor  automatism  an  impulse  sets  in  motion  the 
muscles  which  are  usually  under  the  control  of  the 
will  and  produces  results  which  simulate  closely  or 
in  many  cases  exactly  the  results  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  regard  as  due  to  the  exercise  of  in¬ 
telligence. 

As  an  example  of  the  intelligence,  not  to  say 
malice,  of  planchette,  we  may  quote  a  true  story 
in  which  figured  a  young  lady  who  cherished  an 
affection  for  a  certain  young  man,  whom  she  was 
in  the  habit  of  meeting  on  Sunday  mornings  without 
the  knowledge  of  her  parents.  One  day  the  said 
young  lady  was  asking  questions  of  planchette, 
which  was  moving  under  the  hands  of  another  per¬ 
son,  her  parents  being  also  present.  Among  other 
inquiries  she  wished  to  know  whether  it  would  be 
fine  after  church  the  following  day.  Instead  of 
giving  a  straightforward  reply,  planchette  responded 


6o 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


to  the  unspoken  thought  in  her  mind,  and  replied  by 
the  single  word  “  George,”  to  the  confusion  of  the 
questioner  and  the  planchette  writer,  who  was  in 
the  secret,  but  far  from  wishing  to  betray  it. 

Automatic  writing  may  also  be  produced  in  other 
ways.  'It  is  sufficient,  in  the  case  of  many  people, 
for  them  to  take  a  pencil  between  forefinger  and 
thumb  and  put  a  sheet  of  paper  beneath.  If  they 
then  take  a  book  or  otherwise  divert  their  attention 
from  the  motions  of  their  hand,  it  will  probably  be 
found  to  trace  scrawls  on  the  paper.  These  scrawls 
develop  in  a  certain  number  of  cases  into  an  intel¬ 
ligible  script,  which  differs  indeed  very  widely  from 
the  ordinary  handwriting  of  the  individual,  but  is 
perfectly  coherent  at  times,  though  not  always  easy 
to  read. 

Although  none  of  the  experiments  dealt  with 
below  are  concerned  with  table  tipping,  it  may  be 
mentioned  here,  for  the  sake  of  completeness  in  our 
brief  survey  in  the  various  modes  of  automatic 
expression  with  which  psychical  research  has  to 
deal.  Similarly,  we  may  mention  without  discussing 
the  performances  of  water  diviners.  Whatever 
the  explanation  of  water  divining,  it  is  certain 
that  it  is  a  perfectly  genuine  gift,  which  is  not  con¬ 
fined  to  those  who  make  a  living  by  it,  but  shared 
by  many  respectable  and  even  distinguished  mem¬ 
bers  of  society. 


MOTOR  AUTOMATISM 


61 


Another  example,  possibly,  of  motor  automatism 
is  to  be  found  in  the  so-called  willing  game,  though 
here  it  is  always  possible  that  the  movement  is 
more  voluntary  and  dependent  rather  on  the  evo¬ 
cation  of  a  picture  of  the  position  in  which  a  hidden 
object  has  to  be  sought  or  other  sensory  idea,  rather 
than  upon  motor  automatism  proper.  With  techni¬ 
calities  of  this  sort,  however,  we  are  little  concerned, 
the  less  so  as  no  examples  of  the  willing  game  are 
quoted  in  the  present  volume,  for  reasons  that  will 
be  explained  below. 

We  have  now  surveyed  the  field  with  which  we 
have  to  deal,  that  is  to  say,  we  have  briefly  glanced 
at  the  various  methods  by  which  an  idea,  prima 
facie  telepathic,  is  found  to  emerge  into  conscious¬ 
ness.  We  may  now  proceed  to  the  discussion  of  the 
experiments  in  detail. 


CHAPTER  V 

Historical — The  Magnetizers — Spiritualism — The 
Newnham  experiments — Experiments  by  Mr. 
Malcolm  Guthrie,  Professor  Sidgwick  and 
others. 

As  the  present  work  does  not  treat  of  thought  trans¬ 
ference  in  general,  I  will  not  attempt  to  give  in 
detail  the  history  of  the  idea,  but  only  to  discuss 
some  of  the  already  published  experimental  evidence 
and  supplement  it  by  experiments  conducted  by 
myself.  It  may,  however,  be  interesting  to  recall 
briefly  some  facts  which,  if  their  significance  had 
been  seen,  would  have  led  to  an  earlier  development 
of  interest  in  the  subject,  the  appearance  of  which, 
as  a  branch  of  investigation,  does  not  in  fact 
date  further  back  than  1876,  when  it  was  brought 
to  the  notice  of  the  British  Association  by  Professor 
W.  F.  Barrett,  F.R.S.,  President  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  at  the  time  when  these  words 
were  written. 

Hypnotism  has  now  been  studied  for  a  good  deal 
more  than  a  hundred  years.  As  far  back  as 


62 


HISTORICAL 


63 

the  twenties  of  the  nineteenth  century  Puysegur  and 
other  French  magnetizers  detected  in  their  subjects 
what  was  known  to  a  later  generation  of  English 
observers  as  “  community  of  sensation,”  and  the 
facts  were  investigated  by  a  commission,  appointed 
by  the  French  Academy,  which  sat  for  no  less 
than  five  years  before  presenting  a  report  in  1831, 
and  affirmed  the  reality  of  “  l’action  a  distance.” 
With  a  truly  admirable  regard  for  the  “  facts  ” 
of  science,  they  resolved  not  to  publish  the  report, 
because,  if  the  majority  of  the  statements  were 
correct,  one  half  of  physiology  would  go  by  the 
board,  and  the  dissemination  of  such  knowledge 
would  have  been  dangerous. 

How  far  this  attitude  led  to  the  question  being 
ignored  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Perhaps,  had  the 
French  Academy  taken  a  broader  view  of  “  science  ” 
and  faced  the  possibility  of  a  reconstruction  of 
hypotheses  to  make  them  suit  the  facts  instead  of 
cutting  their  facts  to  fit  their  hypotheses,  telepathy 
might  have  been  a  subject  of  general  interest  fifty 
years  earlier,  and  the  investigation  might  have  done 
much  to  induce  men  of  science  to  take  up  “  occult  ” 
questions  generally,  and  to  check  the  growth  of 
spiritualism  by  suggesting  that  the  spiritistic  inter¬ 
pretation  of  certain  facts  was  incorrect.  The 
English  observations  failed  to  excite  attention  from 
a  rather  different  cause.  On  the  one  hand,  the 


64 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


medical  side  of  hypnotism  was  mainly  to  the  fore, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  interest  in  its  psychical 
side  was  choked,  to  a  large  extent,  by  the  ranker 
vegetation  of  spiritualism,  which  traces  its  origin 
to  the  Rochester  rappings  of  1848.  Morin,  Du 
Magnetisme  (Paris,  i860),  affirms  the  existence 
of  thought  transference,  but  means  no  more  than 
the  interpretation  of  a  somnambulist  of  the  thoughts 
of  a  person  by  means  of  a  study  of  his  features, 
unconscious  though  it  may  be. 

To  one  acute  observer,  however,  if  to  no  more, 
the  idea  of  telepathy  presented  itself  as  an  explana¬ 
tion  of  spiritualistic  marvels.  Writing  in  the 
Spectator  of  January  30,  1869,  Mr.,  now  Sir  James, 
Knowles,  editor  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  sug¬ 
gested  brain  waves  as  the  explanation  of  death 
wraiths,1  of  so-called  clairvoyance,  and  of  other  facts 
now  more  familiar  to  us  than  they  were  in  those 
days.  The  idea  had  occurred  to  him  as  much  as 
eighteen  years  earlier  in  1851,  in  connexion  with 
hypnotic  experiments,  and  we  thus  have  a  writer 
linking  the  English  magnetists  with  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  and  its  immediate  predecessors. 

1  The  idea  was,  of  course,  not  entirely  new.  Cf.  Wal¬ 
ton’s  Life  of  Donne,  pp.  24,  25.  The  suggested  explanation 
of  the  apparition  of  Mrs.  Donne  seems  to  he  that  it  had  some¬ 
thing  to  do  with  brain  waves.  The  author  regards  the  case 
as  analogous  to  that  of  two  lutes,  both  of  which  vibrate  when 
one  is  struck. 


'  BRAIN  WAVES 


65 

The  same  theory  of  spiritualistic  manifestations 
was  put  forward,  apparently  independently,  by 
Mr.  H.  M.  Andrew  in  the  first  number  of  the  Mel¬ 
bourne  Review,  issued  in  January,  1875,  as  a  result 
of  various  experiments  tried  in  1873  or  1874,  with 
a  view  of  showing  that  the  knowledge  of  the 
spiritualistic  medium  emanated  from  the  brain  of 
the  sitter. 

Six  months  earlier,  in  August,  1875,  Dr.  Mcgraw 
had  expressed  the  opinion,  in  the  Detroit  Review 
of  Medicine,  that  features  in  the  willing  game 
seemed  to  hint  at  the  possibility  of  one  man’s 
nervous  system  being  used  by  the  active  will  of 
another  to  accomplish  certain  simple  movements. 

The  real  protagonist  of  psychical  research  in  the 
world  of  science  was,  as  has  already  been  men¬ 
tioned,  Professor  Barrett.  His  paper  of  1876 
dealt  mainly  with  the  phenomena  manifested  by 
hypnotized  subjects  whom  he  selected  from  among 
the  children  of  a  village  in  Westmeath,,  but  the 
first  published  experiments  date  back  to  the  year 
1871  and  were  carried  out  by  the  Rev.  P.  H. 
Newnham  and  his  wife.  The  modus  operandi  was 
as  follows:  Mrs.  Newnham  sat  at  a  low  table  in  a 
low  chair,  leaning  backwards ;  her  husband  sat 
about  eight  feet  distant  at  a  rather  high  table, 
with  his  back  towards  Mrs.  Newnham,  who,  as  a 
rule,  kept  her  eyes  shut ;  he  wrote  down  questions, 


F 


66 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


of  the  wording  and  purport  of  which  Mrs.  Newn- 
ham  was  absolutely  unaware,  and  which  she,  in  many 
cases,  answered  successfully  by  means  of  planchette, 
even  when  the  facts  given  in  her  answer  were  not 
and  never  had  been  known  to  her.  The  questions 
were  not  communicated  to  Mrs.  Newnham  when  an 
evasive  or  other  answer  was  returned  which 
necessitated  further  questions,  nor  even  the 
general  subject  to  which  they  alluded.  The 
answers  were  occasionally  illegible  and  sometimes 
irrelevant,  but  in  the  latter  case  it  was  generally 
found  that  they  had  reference  to  a  previous  question 
which  had  not  been  fully  dealt  with.  It  was 
possible  to  explain  most  of  the  few  wrong  answers 
by  reference  to  the  circumstances  of  the  moment, 
and  in  nearly  every  case  the  purport  of  the  question 
seems  to  have  been  understood.  A  statistical 
analysis  of  the  results  being  impossible,  owing  to  the 
nature  of  many  of  the  answers,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
deal  at  length  with  the  full  series  of  309  questions, 
details  of  which  will  be  found  in  a  paper  on  Auto¬ 
matic  Writing  by  the  late  F.  W.  H.  Myers.1  From 
the  point  of  view  of  evidence  it  is  important  to 
notice  that,  assuming  the  good  faith  of  the  ex¬ 
perimenters,  which  there  is  absolutely  no  reason  to 
doubt,  the  results  having  been  noted  in  a  diary 
obviously  not  intended  for  publication  and  only 
1  Proc.  S.P.R.,  iii.  6-23. 


NEWNHAM 


67 

made  known  eleven  years  after  the  event,  the  con¬ 
ditions  were  remarkably  good.  It  may,  of  course, 
be  argued  that  the  minds  of  husband  and  wife  are 
apt  to  move  in  similar  grooves,  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  with  the  exception  of  eight 
months  in  1871  Mrs.  Newnham  never  manifested 
the  power  of  answering  her  husband’s  unspoken 
thoughts.  The  same  remark  applies,  though  with 
less  force,  to  the  criticism  that  Mrs.  Newnham 
may  have  become  aware  of  the  purport  of  the 
questions,  by  subconscious  interpretation,  by  the 
sounds  produced  by  the  pencil  in  writing  the  ques¬ 
tions.  But,  apart  from  the  improbability  of  this, 
the  correct  answers  of  the  facts  of  which  Mrs. 
Newnham  had  no  knowledge,  absolutely  negative 
this  explanation  in  some  cases  and  any  hypothesis 
must  of  course  cover  the  whole  of  the  facts. 

From  1881  onwards  many  series  of  experiments 
were  made,  details  of  which  will  be  found  in  the 
publications  of  the  S.P.R.1  I  will  not  do  more 
than  quote  some  of  the  more  important  experiments 
and  give  statistical  abstracts  of  those  in  which 
the  conditions  seem  satisfactory. 

An  important  contribution  to  the  subject  was 
made  by  Mr.  Malcolm  Guthrie's  experiments  in 

1  Proc.  S.P.R.  vols  i.  to  xii. ;  Journal  S.P.R.  vols  i.  to  x., 
etc.  A  convenient  resume  is  given  by  Mr.  Podmore  in  Ap¬ 
paritions  and  Thought  Transference,  pp.  18-143. 


68 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


transference  of  tastes  and  pains.  In  the  case  of 
tastes,  fifteen  experiments1  were  tried  on  September 
5,  1883,  the  agents  being  Mr.  Guthrie,  Mr.  Edmund 
Gurney  and  Mr.  Myers.  The  percipients  were  two 
ladies,  Miss  Edwards,  who  on  the  occasion  in 
question  was  less  sensitive  than  usual  owing  to  a 
sore  throat,  and  Miss  Relph.  In  order  to  prevent 
errors  arising  from  a  possible  smell  given  off  by 
the  substances,  they  were  kept  outside  the  room 
in  which  the  percipients  were,  and  in  a  dark  lobby, 
so  that  the  agents  selected  them  at  random  and 
one  investigator  was  often  unaware  of  what  the 
others  took.  The  results  are  sufficiently  striking  to 
be  worth  giving  in  detail. — 


No.  of 
experi- 


merit.  Agents. 

Perci-  Substance. 

Answer. 

pie  nt. 

1. 

E.G.  &  M2 

E 

Carbonate  of  Soda 

— 

2. 

M.G. 

R 

Carraway  Seeds. 

“It  feels  like 

meal 

’  — like  a  seed 

loaf 

— carraway  seeds. 

3- 

E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Cloves 

Cloves. 

4- 

E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Citric  Acid 

— . 

5- 

M.G. 

R 

Citric  Acid 

Salt. 

6. 

E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Liquorice 

Cloves. 

7- 

M.G. 

R 

Cloves 

Cinnamon. 

8. 

E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Acid  Jujube 

Pear  drop. 

1  Proc.  S.P.R.  ii.  3,  sq. 

2  E.G. — Edmund  Gurney;  M. — Myers;  M.G. — Malcolm 
Guthrie.  The  agent  is  the  sender  of  the  presumed  telepathic 
message,  the  percipient  the  receiver  of  the  same. 


GUTHRIE 


69 


No.  of 
experi¬ 
ment.  Agents. 

Pcrci-  Substance. 

Answer. 

9.  M.G. 

pient. 

R  Acid  Jujube. 

Something  hard 

10.  E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Candied  Ginger 

which  is  giving 
way — acid  jujube. 
Something  sweet 

11.  M.G. 

R 

Candied  Ginger. 

and  hot. 

Almond  toffy. 

12.  E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Home  made  Noyau 

[M.G.  did  not  re¬ 
alize  at  once  that 
he  had  ginger.] 

Salt. 

13.  M.G. 

R 

Home  made  Noyau 

Port  Wine. 

14.  E.G.  &  M. 

E 

Bitter  Aloes 

— 

15.  M.G. 

R 

Bitter  Aloes 

— 

Excluding  the  cases  where  nothing  was  felt, 
E.  got  1  completely  right  and  3  nearly  right  out 
of  6  trials ;  R.  got  2  completely  right  and  2  nearly 
right  out  of  the  same  number,  making  3  completely 
rights  and  5  approximations  out  of  12  trials.  The 
total  number  of  substances  used  was  about  20; 
assuming  that  as  a  result  of  previous  trials  the 
percipients  were  aware  of  this,  we  find  that  the 
probability  of  their  guessing  right  was  5  in  100; 
they  actually  succeeded  5  times  as  often,  without 
counting  the  42  per  cent,  of  approximations,  the 
precise  value  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  estimate. 
The  absolute  failures,  which  should  have  formed 
95  per  cent,  of  the  answers,  were  actually  only  10 
per  cent,  of  them.  The  good  faith  of  those  con- 


70 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


cerned,  an  element  in  the  evidence  to  which  I  do 
not  propose  to  allude  as  a  rule,  being  assumed, 
the  only  objection  that  can  be  brought  against  the 
series,  apart  from  an  unfortunate  lack  of  detail 
in  the  published  reports  as  to  the  conditions  under 
which  the  experiments  were  carried  out,  lies  in  the 
possibility  of  the  detection  of  odours  by  the  per¬ 
cipients.  But  it  may  be  noted  that  the  home 
made  noyau,  which  is  recorded  to  have  been  by 
far  the  most  strong  smelling  of  the  substances 
tried,  was  guessed  by  one  percipient  as  salt. 

In  the  summary  given  by  Mr.  Guthrie  1  we  find 
that  pains  were  successfully  localized  without 
contact  in  8  out  of  io  guesses,  or  66  per  cent,  in  a 
series  where,  excluding  cases  where  no  impression 
was  got,  out  of  97  trials  of  various  sorts  only  32 
answers  were  correct,  or  about  33  per  cent.  In  all 
the  three  series  with  contact  the  successes  were  forty- 
four  and  the  approximations  20  out  of  a  total  of  82 
real  trials,  or  percentages  of  54  and  24  with  only 
22  per  cent,  of  failures.  Bearing  in  mind  that  the 
percentage  of  complete  successes  under  all  condi¬ 
tions  diminished  from  61  in  the  first  series  to  37 
in  the  second  and  38  in  the  third,  it  is  remarkable 
that  the  pain  series  without  contact  in  the  third 
series  should  have  shown  results  superior  to  those 
of  all  the  series  with  contact  together  or  any  of  them 
1  Proc.  S.P.R.  iii.  427,  428. 


RICHET 


7i 


separately.  This  seems  to  indicate  that  in  this  set 
of  experiments,  at  any  rate,  contact  had  little  in¬ 
fluence  on  the  results. 

In  all  these  cases,  however,  exact  statistical  data 
as  to  the  probabilities  are  excluded  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  save  in  such  instances  as  the 
smells,  diagrams,  pains,  etc.,  from  which  the  selec¬ 
tion  is  made,  are  known  to  the  percipient.  The  case 
is  different  where  the  objects  to  be  guessed  are  cards 
drawn  from  a  pack  or  numbers  between  certain 
limits.  Professor  Richet  tried  a  large  number  of 
experiments  with  cards,  and  he  was  imitated 
by  members  of  the  S.P.R.  and  others.1  I11  a  total 
of  20,580  trials  the  suit  was  named  correctly 
5,549  times  as  against  a  probable  number  of  5,145 
successes,  a  plus  of  404  successes  or  more  than 
7  per  cent.,  a  discrepancy  less  considerable  indeed 
than  that  got  by  Professor  Richet,  but  more  re¬ 
markable  as  being  found  in  experiments  eleven  times 
more  numerous. 

Perhaps  the  best  and  most  important  experiments 
yet  made,  both  as  regards  the  excellence  of  the 
condition  and  the  results  attained,  are  those  con¬ 
ducted  at  Brighton  by  Professor  and  Mrs.  Sidgwick 
from  1889  to  1892.  In  the  first  series,  covering  the 

1  Revue  Phil.  1884,  622-628.  The  probability  that  chance 
alone  did  not  operate  in  a  portion  of  the  series  consisting  of 
1,833  trials  was  calculated  at  .99996  (i.e.  practically  certainty), 
by  Professor  F.  Y.  Edgeworth. 


72 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


period  from  July  to  October,  1889,  the  percipients, 
four  in  all,  were  hypnotised  hy  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith, 
who  also  acted  as  agent.  The  objects  were  counters 
with  the  numbers  from  ten  to  ninety  in  raised 
figures  coloured  red,  the  surrounding  wood  being 
uncoloured.  An  elaborate  record  and  analysis  of 
the  experiments  is  given  in  Proc.  S.P.R.  vi.  128-170, 
to  which  reference  must  be  made  by  those  who  wish 
to  go  into  details.  The  amount  of  success  varied 
to  a  singular  extent,  a  point  that  on  the  whole 
seems  to  tell  in  favour  of  the  telepathic  explanation, 
for  any  cause  of  error  may  be  assumed  to  have 
operated  under  similar  conditions  in  a  degree 
approximately  equal.  Taking  the  percipients 
separately,  we  find  that  with  agent  and  percipient 
in  the  same  room,  345  trials  were  made  with  P,  and 
263  with  T ;  with  agent  and  percipient  in  different 
rooms,  139  trials  were  made  with  P,  and  79  with  T ; 
in  all,  617  under  the  former  and  218  under  the  latter 
conditions.  Of  the  former,  the  digits  were  given 
90  times  correctly  and  14  times  more  in  reversed 
order,  the  most  probable  number  of  successes 
being  in  each  case  eight.1 

On  the  successful  days  2  there  were  245  trials  and 
60  successes  (excluding  second  guesses  and  10  cases 

1  The  chances  of  success  were  1  in  81.  Second  guesses  are 
excluded. 

2  When  three  or  more  correct  guesses  were  made. 


SIDGWICK 


73 


of  reversed  digits)  with  P,  and  129  trials  with  23 
successes  with  T.  On  other  days  there  were  243 
trials  in  all  and  only  12  successes.  This  is,  however, 
considerably  above  the  figure  which  pure  chance, 
usually  termed  “  expectation,”  would  give. 

On  the  successful  days,  second  guesses  and  re¬ 
versed  digits  being  left  out  of  account,  there  were 
133  first  digits,  and  119  second  digits  given  correctly 
against  an  expectation  of  46  and  38;  on  the  unsuc¬ 
cessful  the  numbers  were  38  and  32  with  expectation 
29  and  29.  In  all,  171  and  15 1  with  expectation  75 
and  62. 

Of  the  139  trials  made  with  P  and  the  agent  in 
different  rooms,1  there  was  no  guess  made  in  8 
cases.  In  the  remaining  13 1  cases  there  were  7  com¬ 
plete  successes  and  one  case  in  which  the  digits  were 
reversed ;  in  6  cases  the  first  digit  was  given  correctly 
and  in  11  cases  the  second  digit,  the  expectation 
being  1  or  2  complete  successes,  7  first  digits  and 
6  second.2  In  71  of  these  trials  Mr.  Smith  was 
in  the  room  below,  and  apparently  entirely  out  of 
hearing  of  the  percipients.  In  this  series  there  were 
2  successes,  the  expectation  being  1  or  o. 

A  curious  theory  was  put  forward  by  Lehmann 

1  For  details  of  the  place  of  experiments,  see  the  original 
reports. 

2  As  o  cannot  come  first,  there  is  one  figure  less  to  choose 
from. 


74  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

and  Hansen,1  to  account  for  the  results  here  sum¬ 
marised,  and  more  particularly  for  those  results 
which  were  attained  when  agent  and  percipient 
were  in  the  same  room.  These  experimenters  set 
themselves  to  find  out  by  what  means  the  results 
could,  under  the  assigned  conditions  and  assuming 
the  good  faith  of  the  experimenters,  have  been 
attained,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  uncon¬ 
scious  whispering  of  the  numbers  was  the  clue  to  the 
marvel.  Accordingly  they  “  whispered  uncon¬ 
sciously  ”  in  their  laboratory  for  considerable  periods 
at  a  time  and  recorded  the  successes  and  failures, 
successes  being  the  cases  in  which  the  “unconscious” 
whisperer,  with  the  aid  of  a  parabolic  mirror,  trans¬ 
mitted  to  his  fellow  experimenter  the  number  which 
he  had  previously  selected  as  the  one  to  be  whis¬ 
pered  “  unconsciously.” 

The  whole  thing  being  prearranged,  the  term, 
“  unconscious  whispering,”  seems  ill-chosen,  and 
the  meaning  would  have  been  better  expressed  by 
“  surreptitious  whispering,”  so  far  as  the  Lehmann- 
Hansen  experiments  were  concerned.  Their  case 
being,  however,  that  the  whispering  in  the  Sidgwick 
experiments  was  unconscious  and  not  surreptitious, 
they  transferred  the  term  “  unconscious  ”  to  their 
own  experiments,  which  had  no  real  relation  to 

1  Ueber  Unwillkiirliches  Flustern,  Phil,  Stud.  Bd.  II,  Heft, 
4,  1895- 


WHISPERING 


75 


the  question  at  issue.  Their  studies  should  obviously 
have  been  directed  to  proving  that  people,  who  were 
unaware  of  the  object  of  the  experiment,  would 
frequently,  when  told  to  think  intently  of  a  number 
or  other  word,  whisper  the  word  in  question,  or  so 
far  reproduce  it  by  expiratory  or  inspiratory  move¬ 
ments  that  another  person  would  be  guided  in  his 
guess  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  influence  the  results 
to  the  extent  indicated. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  in¬ 
vestigation  was  that,  in  addition  to  being  concerned 
with  an  entirely  different  set  of  phenomena  to  those 
alleged  to  have  occurred  in  the  Sidgwick  experi¬ 
ments,  the  results  were  entirely  inconclusive.  An 
analysis  of  the  Sidgwick  experiments  was  given,  with 
the  idea  of  proving  that  auditory  transmission  was 
the  best  explanation  of  certain  errors.  But  a 
counter-analysis  by  Professor  Sidgwick 1  showed 
that  errors  not  explicable  on  this  theory  were  no  less 
numerous,  and  that  consequently  the  Lehmann- 
Hansen  hypothesis  was  not  only  not  proved,  but  not 
even  proved  to  be  probable.  This  Professor 
Lehmann,  with  a  candour  that  is  only  too  rare, 
admitted  to  be  the  case.2 

The  other  Brighton  series,  carried  on  by  Mrs. 
Sidgwick  and  Miss  Johnson,  at  intervals  during 

1  Proc.  S.P.R.  xii.  298,  sq. 
a  Journ.  S.P.R. 


76  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

1890-1-2,  were  mainly  of  three  kinds.  In  the  first 
the  agent  and  percipient  were  in  different  rooms  and 
the  objects  were,  as  before,  numbers.  In  252 
trials  with  Miss  B.  as  percipient  there  were  27  com¬ 
plete  successes,  112  first  digits,  and  50  second  digits 
right,  as  against  expectation  of  3-4,  30  and  25. 
There  were  also  8  cases  in  which  the  digits,  if  re¬ 
versed,  would  form  the  correct  number,  the  expecta¬ 
tion  being  here,  too,  of  course,  3-4. 

In  a  series  with  agent  and  percipient  in  the  same 
room  the  successes  were  26  out  of  146  trials,  the 
first  digits  right  53,  and  the  second,  47,  as  against 
expectation  of  1-2,  16,  and  15. 

It  is  important  to  notice  how  strongly  this  tells 
against  any  possible  transmission  by  ordinary 
means.  The  complete  successes  were,  it  is  true, 
more  numerous  than  when  the  agent  was  in  another 
room,  but  so  were  the  right  second  digits,  and  the 
causes  which  led  to  the  change  were  not  difficult  to 
discover.  When  the  agent  and  percipient  were 
in  different  rooms,  the  guess  was  not  communicated 
to  the  agent,  who  then  may  have  failed  to  devote 
special  attention  to  the  second  digit;  this  he  would 
however,  naturally  do,  if  he  were  in  the  same  room, 
and  knew  that  one  digit  had  been  correctly  guessed 
or  that  a  guess  had  been  made. 

In  all  these  trials  in  different  rooms,  the  distance 
between  agent  and  percipient  was  inconsiderable  and 


FAILURES 


77 


varied  from  io  to  17  feet.  It  was  indeed  sufficient  In 
the  opinion  of  the  experimenters  to  make  the  words 
of  an  ordinary  conversation  inaudible,  but  it  was 
considered  desirable  to  try  a  series  in  which  the 
distance  was  sufficient  to  make  auditory  indication 
impossible.  Unfortunately,  the  success  in  400 
trials  was  practically  nil,  and  for  this  no  sufficient 
cause  could  be  discovered  other  than  the  effect  of  dis¬ 
tance  on  the  imagination  by  the  agent  or  percipient. 
This  may  be  a  vcra  causa  so  far  as  it  interferes  with 
the  concentration  of  attention,  but  how  far  a  con¬ 
centration  of  attention  is  necessary  or  desirable  in 
either  agent  or  percipient  we  do  not  know ;  conse¬ 
quently  this  explanation  is  hardly  satisfactory. 
The  complete  failure  in  this  series  cannot  but  cast 
some  doubt  on  the  results  in  those  experiments  where 
auditory  communication  was  not  impossible,  for, 
as  will  be  seen  later,  in  other  cases,  distance  does 
not  seem  to  have  had  an  exceptionally  disturbing 
influence  on  the  trials.  On  the  other  hand,  auditory 
transmission,  exceedingly  easy  in  the  case  of  num¬ 
bers,  is  exceedingly  difficult  in  the  case  of  dia¬ 
grams  and  pictures,  whether  we  suppose  the  indi¬ 
cations  to  be  given  unconsciously  or  as  a  result  of 
collusion  between  agent  and  percipient.  The  force 
of  the  argument  from  failure  will  be  much  dimin¬ 
ished  if  the  same  results  are  found  in  a  series  where 
transference  of  pictures  was  aimed  at. 


78 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Among  the  other  experiments  was  a  series,  useless, 
of  course,  for  exact  numerical  estimation  of  the 
relation  of  the  results  to  expectation,  in  which 
indications,  other  than  verbal  suggestion,  were 
apparently  impossible,  and  where,  so  far  as  can  be 
seen  from  the  records,  verbal  suggestion  was  ex¬ 
cluded;  it  showed  an  extraordinary  disproportion 
between  the  results  attained  when  agent  and  per¬ 
cipient  were  in  the  same  and  in  different  rooms.1 
In  the  first  case,  the  successes  were  31  out  of  71 
trials,  of  which  13  were  blanks  and  resulted  in  no 
impression,  in  the  second,  the  failures  were  44  out  of 
55  trials,  the  successes  2,  and  the  blanks,  9. 2  It  is 
therefore  fairly  clear  that  unless  we  assume  the 
causes  of  success  to  have  been  different  in  the  two 
kinds  of  experiments,  it  must  either  be  shown  that 
the  agent  or  some  person  acquainted  with  the  details 
of  the  picture  gave,  either  consciously  or  uncon¬ 
sciously,  sufficient  indications  to  guide  the  percipient, 
and  that  these  indications,  which  were  not  detected 
by  the  experimenters  whose  business  it  was  to  do  so, 
were  either  sufficiently  definite  to  prevent  the 
percipient  from  starting  with  a  wrong  idea  and 
developing  it  along  lines  which  would  result  in  the 
failure  of  the  experiment,  or  were  of  a  character  to 
check  a  mistaken  development  and  bring  the  ideas 

1  As  to  a  possible  cause  of  this,  see  p.  76. 

‘  Proc.  S.P.R.  viii.  56. 


VALUE  OF  RESULTS 


79 

of  the  percipient,  in  the  first  case  erroneous,  into 
line  with  those  of  the  agent. 

The  slow  emergence  of  the  idea  in  some  of  the 
successful  trials  and  the  unpromising  fragments 
from  which  the  final  picture,  built  up  from  various 
elements  previously  seen,  was  constructed,  seem  to 
weigh  heavily  against  the  idea  of  either  collusion  or 
unconscious  indication.  Take  for  example  the 
fourth  experiment  with  Miss  B.,1  when  the  subject 
was  a  Christy  Minstrel  with  a  banjo.  The  first 
thing  described  by  her  was,  “  something  long,  some¬ 
thing  round  in  that  one — a  little  cage  of  some  sort — 
something  that  looks  like  a  cage;  yet  there’s  some¬ 
thing  like  a  handle.  A  can !  Oh,  it's  a  can !  It's 
quite  clear  now.”  Subsequently  she  described  a 
hand,  a  black  hand,  and  then,  although  the  subject 
had  not  meanwhile  been  mentioned,  in  the  course 
of  the  next  experiment,  she  went  on,  “  a  man, 
black;  he’s  got  something  in  his  hand — an  instru¬ 
ment — sort  of  guitar  thing.” 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  to  argue  that  conscious 
collusion  may  simulate  anything,  and  that  conse¬ 
quently  we  have  only  to  deal  with  an  ingenious 
mystification.  But  a  sceptic  who  takes  this  view 
would  probably  find  it  difficult,  under  similar  con¬ 
ditions,  to  produce  by  this  means  anything  equally 
effective.  As  regards  unconscious  indications  the 
1  Proc.  S.P.R.  viii.,  561. 


8o 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


same  holds  good,  and  in  this  case  the  additional 
fact  of  the  circuitous  route  by  which  the  final 
result  was  reached  is  also  in  want  of  explanation. 
The  slow  emergence  of  the  correct  impression  has 
been  so  often  paralleled  in  my  own  experiments, 
where  I  am  satisfied  there  was  no  collusion,  I  myself 
being  in  many  cases  the  agent,  and  where  collusion, 
and  still  more  unconscious  indication  implied  a  so 
much  greater  possibility  of  communicating  a  pic¬ 
ture,  or  still  more  a  nondescript  diagram,  difficult  to 
paint  in  words  under  any  circumstances,  than 
experience  seemed  to  admit,  that  this  explanation 
does  not  commend  itself  to  me. 

There  are,  however,  two  points  in  which  the  con¬ 
ditions  seem  open  to  criticism.  In  the  first  place 
the  picture  to  be  transferred  was  selected,  not  drawn 
at  random  from  a  number  previously  prepared. 
There  was,  therefore,  a  certain  scope  for  the  working 
of  association,  though  it  would  be  unwise  to  attach 
great  importance  to  this  element.  More  important 
is  the  fact  that  the  agent,  in  order  to  maintain  the 
concentration  of  attention  and  ensure  a  due  distri¬ 
bution  of  it  over  all  parts  of  the  picture,  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  make  a  pencil  sketch  of  the  picture  to  be 
transferred.  In  the  case  of  a  complicated  object, 
this  can  hardly  have  affected  the  result  to  any  great 
extent,  so  far  as  one  can  see.  Still,  in  view  of  our 
ignorance  of  the  limits  of  hyperaesthesia,  possible 


HISTORICAL 


81 


indications  of  this  sort  would  have  been  better 
avoided.  In  a  series  of  experiments  with  cards 
designed  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  how 
far  the  audible  indications  of  the  pencil  could  be 
interpreted,  I  found  the  proportion  of  successes 
rose,  when  the  card  to  be  guessed  was  recorded  be¬ 
fore,  instead  of  after,  the  guess.1 

Numerous  other  experiments,  references  to  which 
will  be  found  in  the  bibliography,  were  tried  in  the 
ten  years  from  1882  to  1892  ;  and  the  results  were  so 
far  conclusive  that  telepathy  was  regarded  as  an 
established  fact,  not  only  by  the  Society  itself,  or 
rather  by  its  individual  members,  hut  also  by  the 
world  at  large,  so  far  as  daily  and,  to  a  large  extent, 
weekly  journalism  is  concerned.  This  attitude 
would  perhaps  have  been  justified  if  the  same  or 
other  experimenters  had  succeeded  in  producing  a 
steady  flow  of  experiments  with  results  distinctly 
above  expectation,  even  if  they  did  not  attain  the 
high  level  of  the  Brighton  series.  This  was,  how¬ 
ever,  by  no  means  the  case,  and  so  long  as  the  So¬ 
ciety  fails  to  produce  evidence  of  this  nature,  so  long 
will  the  world  he  justified  in  a  sceptical  attitude,  and 
so  long  can  it  he  said  that  one  of  the  main  objects  of 
the  S.P.R.  remains  unattained. 

1  As  the  recorder  was  also  the  agent,  it  is  possible  that  the 
mere  act  of  writing  down  the  card  facilitated  thought  trans¬ 
ference.  I  was  unable  to  make  a  sufficiently  extended  series 
to  form  an  opinion  on  the  point. 

G 


CHAPTER  VI 


Experiments  at  a  distance — Transference  of  images 
— T elepathic  hallucinations 

Although  comparatively  little  evidence  has  been 
published,  it  would  not  be  fair  to  pass  over  the  trials 
at  a  distance.  It  is  manifestly  impossible  to  object 
to  the  conditions  under  which  such  experiments  are 
tried,  provided  the  diagrams  are  sufficiently  varied 
and  selected  at  random.  The  experiments  of  the 
Rev.  A.  Glardon,  Miss  Despard,  and  others  are 
worthy  of  note  and  seem  difficult  to  explain  by  any 
theory  of  chance  coincidence.  It  should,  however, 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  series  were  comparatively 
short — a  defect  that  could  be  readily  repaired,  if 
it  were  once  realized  that  the  evidence  for  telepathy 
is  far  from  being  complete,  while  the  laws,  if  any, 
that  govern  its  manifestations,  and  the  mode  in 
which  ideas  are  transmitted,  are  hidden  in  the 
deepest  mystery. 

Miss  Despard  tried  her  experiments  in  the  summer 
of  1892  with  a  friend  of  hers,  Miss  Campbell,  with 
whom  she  had  tried  a  successful  series  of  experi¬ 
ments  at  close  quarters  a  few  months  previously.  The 


82 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE  83 

conditions  of  the  experiment  were  recorded  in 
writing  beforehand ;  after  the  trial  the  percipient 
recorded  her  impression  at  once  and  before  hearing 
from  the  agent.  The  first  experiment  was  as 
follows : — 1 

No.  1.  June  22,  1892. 

Arranged  that  R.  C.  Despard  should,  when  at  the 
School  of  Medicine  in  Handel  Street,  W.C.,  between 
the  hours  of  11.50  and  11.55,  her  attention  on 
some  object  which  Miss  Campbell,  at  77,  Chesterton 
Road,  W.,  is  by  thought  transference  to  discover. 

Percipient’s  Account. 

Owing  to  an  unexpected  delay,  instead  of  being 
quietly  at  home  at  11.50  a.m.,  I  was  waiting  for  my 
train  at  Baker  Street,  and  as  just  at  that  time  trains 
were  moving  away  from  both  platforms  and  there 
was  the  usual  bustle  going  on,  I  thought  it  hopeless 
to  try  on  my  part;  but  just  while  I  was  thinking 
this  I  felt  a  sort  of  mental  pull-up,  which  made  me 
feel  sure  that  Miss  Despard  was  fixing  her  attention, 
and  directly  after  I  felt  “  my  compasses — no, 
scalpel,”  seemed  to  see  a  flash  of  light  as  if  on  bright 
steel,  and  I  thought  of  two  scalpels,  first  with  their 
points  together  and  then  folding  together  into  one ; 
just  then  my  train  came  up. 

I  write  this  down  before  having  seen  Miss  Despard, 
1  Podmore,  Apparitions,  p.  127. 


84 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


so  am  still  in  ignorance  whether  I  am  correct  in  my 
surmise,  but,  as  I  know  what  Miss  Despard  would 
probably  be  doing  at  ten  minutes  to  twelve,  I  feel 
that  my  knowledge  may  have  suggested  the  thought 
to  me,  though  this  idea  did  not  occur  to  me  until 
just  this  minute,  as  I  have  written  it  down. 

C.  M.  Campbell. 

77,  Chesterton  Road,  W. 


Agent’s  Account. 

At  ten  minutes  to  twelve  I  concentrated  my  mind 
on  an  object  that  happened  to  be  in  front  of  me  at 
the  time — two  scalpels,  crossed,  with  their  points 
together ;  but  in  about  five  minutes,  as  it  occurred 
to  me  that  the  knowledge  I  was  at  the  School  of 
Medicine  might  suggest  a  similar  idea  to  Miss 
Campbell,  I  tried  to  bring  up  a  country  scene,  of  a 
brook  running  through  a  field  with  a  patch  of 
yellow  marsh  marigolds  in  the  foreground.  This 
second  idea  made  no  impression  on  Miss  Campbell 
— perhaps  owing  to  the  bustle  around  her  at  the 
time. 

R.  C.  Despard. 


No.  2.  October  25,  1892. 

At  3.30  p.m.  R.  C.  Despard  is  to  fix  her  attention 
on  some  object,  and  C.  M.  Campbell,  being  in  a 
different  part  of  London,  is  by  thought  transference 
to  find  out  what  the  object  is. 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE  85 
Percipient’s  Account. 

At  3.30  I  was  at  home  at  77,  Chesterton  Road, 
North  Kensington,  alone  in  my  room. 

First  my  attention  seemed  to  flit  from  one  object 
to  another,  while  nothing  definite  stood  out,  but 
soon  I  saw  a  pair  of  gloves,  which  became  more 
definitely  distinct  till  they  appeared  as  a  pair  of 
baggy  tan-coloured  kid  gloves,  certainly  a  size 
larger  than  worn  by  either  R.C.D.  or  myself,  and 
not  quite  like  any  of  ours  in  colour.  After  this  I 
saw  a  train  going  out  of  a  station  (I  had  just  re¬ 
turned  from  seeing  some  one  off  at  Victoria),  almost 
obliterated  by  a  picture  of  a  bridge  over  a  small 
river,  but  I  felt  that  I  was  consciously  thinking  and 
left  off  the  experiment,  being  unable  to  clear  my 
mind  sufficiently  of  outside  things. 

Agent’s  Account. 

At  3.30  on  October  25  I  was  at  30,  Handel  Street, 
Brunswick  Square,  W.C.  C.M.C.  and  myself  had 
arranged  beforehand  to  make  an  experiment  in 
thought  transference  at  that  hour,  I  to  try  to  transfer 
some  object  to  her  mind,  the  nature  of  which  was 
left  entirely  unspecified.  I  picked  up  a  pair  of 
rather  old  tan-coloured  gloves — purposely  not  tak¬ 
ing  a  pair  of  my  own — and  tried  for  about  five 
minutes  to  concentrate  my  attention  on  them  and 
the  wish  to  transfer  an  impression  of  them  to 


86 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


C.M.C.’s  mind.  After  this  I  fixed  my  attention  on 
a  window,  but  felt  my  mind  getting  tired,  and 
therefore  rather  disturbed  by  the  constant  sound 
of  omnibuses  and  waggons  passing  the  open  window. 

R.  C.  Despard. 

October  25,  1892. 

A  month  later  Miss  Campbell  wrote,  giving  some 
further  details  as  follows :  “  With  regard  to  the 

distant  experiments,  the  notes  sent  to  you  were  the 
only  ones  made.  In  the  first  experiment  (scalpels), 
I  wrote  the  account  before  Miss  Despard’s  return, 
and  when  Miss  Despard  returned,  before  seeing 
what  I  had  written,  she  told  me  what  she  had 
thought  of,  and  almost  directly  wrote  it  down. 

“  In  the  second  experiment  (gloves)  I  was  just 
going  to  write  my  account  when  Miss  Despard 
returned  home,  and  she  asked  me  at  once,  ‘  Well, 
what  did  you  think  of?’  I  told  her  a  pair  of  tan 
gloves,  then  sat  down  and  wrote  my  account,  and 
when  she  had  read  it  through,  she  said,  ‘  Yes,  you 
have  exactly  described  Miss  M.’s  gloves,  which  I 
was  then  holding  while  I  fixed  my  attention  on 
them,’  and  then  she  wrote  her  account.” 

As  has  been  pointed  out  above,  these  experiments 
are  too  few  in  number  to  give  much  security  against 
chance  successes.  Moreover,  as  Miss  Campbell 
points  out,  the  object  in  the  first  case  was  by  no 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE  87 

means  above  suspicion.  The  trials  are  also  open  to 
some  objection  on  the  ground  that  the  notes  of  the 
experiments  were  not  made  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment.  With  feminine  caution,  the  experimenters 
refrained  from  recording  their  own  share  until  they 
had  some  assurance  that  the  trial  had  not  been  a 
failure.  It  is  very  probable  that  this  little  peculi¬ 
arity  made  absolutely  no  difference  to  the  record; 
but  where  so  much  depended  upon  the  form  and  the 
words,  it  would  have  been  wiser  to  write  down  all 
the  facts  worthy  of  being  recorded  as  soon  as  the 
experiment  was  finished.  Addenda  can  readily  be 
made  and  noted  as  such.  It  need  hardly  be  said 
that  the  objection  to  record  failures,  if  this  was  the 
real  reason  for  the  procedure  under  discussion,  is 
fatal  to  the  value  of  the  experiments ;  where  there 
is  any  reason  to  suppose  that  only  successful  trials 
are  recorded,  we  have  no  data  for  estimating  the 
proportion  of  failures.  In  the  present  case,  how¬ 
ever,  the  two  experiments  quoted  seem  to  have  been 
the  only  ones  made  at  a  distance. 

In  the  same  year,  Mr.  Kirk  and  Miss  G.,  who  had 
two  years  previously  tried  a  series  of  twenty-two 
with  but  moderate  success,  renewed  their  attempts, 
and  out  of  the  seven  experiments  tried,  two  were 
of  a  distinctly  striking  character.1  The  fourth 
trial  of  the  series  was  on  May  1.  Miss  G.’s  im- 


1  Podmore,  loc.  cit.  p.  133. 


88 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


pressions  were  recorded  in  part  the  same  night,  in 
part  the  following  morning  before  she  saw  Mr.  Kirk. 
She  saw  “  a  broken  circle,  then  only  faint  patches 
of  light,  not  cloudlike  but  flat,  which  alternated  with 
vertical  streaks  of  pale  light.”  This  part  of  her 
record,  written  on  the  same  evening,  seems  to  refer 
to  the  first  part  of  Mr.  Kirk’s  experiment.  Later 
she  had,  “  soon  after  lying  down  last  night,  a  rapid 
but  most  realistic  glimpse  of  Mr.  Kirk  leaning 
against  his  dining-room  mantelpiece;  the  room 
seemed  brightly  lighted,  and  he  looked  rather  both¬ 
ered,  and  just  as  I  saw  him  he  appeared  to  say, 
‘  Doctor,1  I  haven’t  got  my  pipe.’  This  seemed  to 
me  very  absurd,  the  more  so  as  I  do  not  know 
whether  Mr.  Kirk  ever  smoked  a  pipe.  I  see  him 
occasionally  with  a  cigar  or  cigarette,  but  cannot 
remember  ever  having  seen  him  with  a  pipe;  if  I 
have,  it  must  have  been  years  ago.  I  do  not  know 
whether  my  eyes  were  open  or  closed,  but  the  vivid¬ 
ness  of  the  impression  quite  startled  me.  This  oc¬ 
curred  just  after  the  expiration  of  time  appointed  for 
experiment  ( 10.45-1 1.15).” 

After  seeing  this  report,  Mr.  Kirk,  who  of  course 
did  not  record  at  the  time  what  he  supposed  to  have 
had  no  connexion  with  his  experiment,  wrote  as 
follows :  “  The  fact  that  I  had  another  experiment 

1  A  familiar  name  given  to  Miss  G.  by  Mr.  Kirk  and  his 
wife, 


EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  DISTANCE  89 

to  make  [i.e.  after  the  trial  with  Miss  G.]  enables 
me  to  trace  minutely  my  actions  before  beginning 
it.  Immediately  the  time  had  expired  with  Miss 
G.  I  got  up  [from  the  low  chair]  and  rapidly  lit  the 
gas  and  three  pieces  of  candle,  which  I  had  ready 
in  the  cardboard  box  cover,  to  illuminate  the 
diagram.  The  room  was  therefore  brilliantly  lighted. 
I  now  rested  with  my  right  shoulder  against  the 
mantelpiece,  with  my  face  towards  Miss  G.  [i.e.  in 
the  direction  in  which  she  was,  for  she  was  not  in 
the  same  house],  but  with  my  eyes  bent  on  the 
carpet.  In  this  position  I  thought  intensely  of  my¬ 
self  and  the  whole  room,  and  feeling  really  anx¬ 
ious  to  make  a  success,  for  at  least  six  minutes.  By 
this  time  my  shoulder  was  aching  very  much  from 
the  constrained  attitude  and  the  pressure  on  the 
mantelpiece.  I  broke  off,  using  words  [talking  to 
myself]  very  similar  to  those  given  by  Miss  G. 
What  I  muttered,  as  nearly  as  I  can  remember, 
was,  ‘  Now,  doctor,  I’ll  get  my  pipe.’  .  .  .  Until 
within  the  last  few  weeks  I  have  not  smoked  a  pipe 
for  many  years,  and  I  do  not  think  it  probable  that 
Miss  G.  has  ever  seen  me  use  one ;  but  it  is  an 
absolute  certainty  that  she  was  not  aware  I  had  taken 
to  smoke  one  recently.” 

There  are  certain  obscurities  in  this  statement ; 
for  instance,  it  seems  that,  although  Mr.  Kirk 
speaks  of  the  time  with  Miss  G.  being  up,  he  was 


90 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


intent  on  trying-  another  experiment  with  her. 
This  experiment  seems  to  have  been  with  a  diagram, 
but  it  is  not  clear  whether  it  was  being  tried  while 
Mr.  Kirk  was  leaning  against  the  mantelpiece,  or 
subsequently,  or  not  at  all.  It  is  likewise  not 
obvious  why  Mr.  Kirk  thought -of  himself  and  the 
room,  unless  that  was  part  of  an  experiment;  but 
from  the  fact  that  he  did  not  record  it  until  after 
reading  Miss  G.’s  record,  we  are  bound  to  suppose 
that  he  did  not  regard  it  as  such.  Elowever  this 
may  be,  the  coincidence  between  the  position  and 
actions  of  Mr.  Kirk  and  the  vision  which  Miss  G, 
records  is  sufficiently  striking  to  excuse  a  good  deal 
of  obscurity. 

In  the  experiment  just  quoted,  the-  scene  visual¬ 
ized  by  Miss  G.  was  the  scene  which  was  actually 
in  Mr.  Kirk’s  mind  at  the  time.  But  in  its  inclusion 
of  an  hallucinatory  figure  of  the  agent  himself,  the 
experience  stands  nearly  on  the  borderline  between 
the  experimental  thought  transference,  which  is  the 
subject  of  the  present  volume,  and  the  spontaneous 
telepathy,  the  main  evidence  for  which  is  based  on 
records  of  apparitions  at  or  near  the  moment  of 
death,  which  will  form  the  subject  of  a  separate 
volume. 

The  other  experiment  of  Mr.  Kirk’s  which  will  be 
quoted  also  stands  near  the  spontaneous  class,  in 
that  the  object  of  which  Miss  G.  became  aware," 


TRANSFERENCE  OF  IMAGES 


91 


though  consciously  in  Mr.  Kirk’s  mind,  was  not 
what  he  was  trying  to  transfer;  in  fact,  he  was 
actually  trying  to  banish  the  thought  of  it  from 
his  mind,  thinking  that  it  would  interfere  with  the 
success  of  the  experiment.  In  this  case  the  impres¬ 
sion  which  Mr.  Kirk  seems  to  have  transmitted  was 
recorded  by  him  before  reading  Miss  G.’s  record, 
so  that  this  report  is,  in  that  respect,  more  satis¬ 
factory.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  less  detail 
in  this  experiment,  and  it  is  consequently  less 
evidential. 

Mr.  Kirk's  report,  after  describing  an  attempt  to 
transfer  an  image  of  the  room  (this  was  evidently 
suggested  by  the  success  of  the  previous  week,  and 
a  success  would  therefore  have  been  discounted  by 
the  possibility  of  “mental  convergence”)  and  of 
an  imaginary  witch,  runs  as  follows :  “  Continued 

to  influence  her  some  minutes  after  limit  of  time  for 
experiment  (11.30  p.m.).  During  this  time  I  was 
much  bothered  by  a  subcurrent  of  thought,  which  I 
in  yain  tried  to  cast  off.  In  the  morning,  just 
before  time  to  get  up,  I  had  a  vivid  dream  of  my 
lost  dog,  Laddie  (lost,  it  appears,  six  years  previous¬ 
ly,  but  still  the  subject  of  dreams  and  occasional 
conversation).  I  dreamt  that  the  dog  had  returned, 
and  that  my  wife,  Miss  G.  and  myself  made  much  of 
him.  I  thought  of  him  all  day,  and  tried  to  suppress 
the  thought,  fearing  it  would  interfere  with  the 


92 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


success  of  the  experiments;  feel  worried  and  irri¬ 
tated  at  this,  being  really  anxious  to  make  an  im¬ 
pression.  Do  not  expect  favourable  result.  Written 
same  night.  J.  Iv.” 

Miss  G.'s  report  was  as  follows: — 

“  Experiment  last  night  (9.5.92)  most  unsatis¬ 
factory.  Saw  only  a  glow  of  light,  and  once  for  a 
few  minutes  a  figure  (of  a  vase).  Some  minutes 
after  11.30  (the  time  for  conclusion  of  experiment) 
it  seemed  as  if  the  door  of  my  room  were  open,  and 
on  the  landing  I  saw  a  very  large  dog,  moving  as 
though  it  had  just  come  upstairs.  I  cannot  conceive 
what  suggested  this,  nor  can  I  understand  why  I 
thought  of  Laddie  during  time  of  experiment.  I  do 
not  think  we  have  mentioned  him  recently.  L.  G.” 

It  does  not  appear  why  Miss  G.  regarded  this 
experiment  as  specially  unsatisfactory.  If  a  vase 
had  been  the  object  selected,  there  would  have  been 
no  reason  for  dissatisfaction,  and  similarly  if  Laddie 
had  formed  the  subject  of  the  designed  trial,  there 
would  have  been  no  reason  for  feeling  surprise  at 
his  appearance  or  recurrence  to  the  mind  during 
the  experiment;  it  is  clear  that  Miss  G.  had  no 
assurance  that  a  vase  and  Laddie  were  not  the  sub¬ 
jects  selected.  Consequently,  her  dissatisfaction  and 
surprise  are  not  easily  accounted  for.  Although 
the  success  was  rather  spontaneous  than  experi¬ 
mental,  it  was  attained  during  the  course  of  an 


TRANSFERENCE  OF  IMAGES 


93 


arranged  experiment,  and  falls  therefore  as  much 
under  the  one  head  as  the  other,  though  such  a 
success  could  not,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  be  included 
in  a  tabular  statement  of  the  proportion  of  successes 
to  failures. 

Although  from  an  evidential  point  of  view 
somewhat  unsatisfactory,  the  agent  having  been 
illiterate  and  apparently  unable  to  record  her 
experiments  independently,  some  experiences  of 
Dr.  Gibotteau’s  are  perhaps  worth  recalling  here, 
not  only  as  being  interesting  in  themselves,  but 
because  of  the  close  connexion  of  some  of  the 
alleged  powers  of  the  agent  with  the  feats  attributed 
all  the  world  over  to  warlocks  and  wizards.  Her 
mother  had  a  reputation  for  sorcery,  and  Bertha 
herself  claimed  to  be  able,  by  the  exercise  of  her  will, 
to  make  people  at  a  distance  from  her  stumble,  lose 
their  way,  or  turn  aside  from  a  given  path.  We 
are  not  immediately  concerned  with  these  matters 
here;  they  will  perhaps  form  the  subject  of  another 
volume  of  the  series.  Three  of  the  most  striking 
of  the  experiments  1  recorded  by  Dr.  Gibotteau  re¬ 
sulted  in  one  case  in  a  visual  impression  alone,  in 
one  case  in  a  visual  and  emotional  impression,  and 
in  one  case  in  an  emotional  impression  alone.  One 
night  he  woke  up,  an  almost  unique  experience  for 
him,  at  3  in  the  morning.  He  at  once  thought  to 
1  Ann.  des  Sciences  Psycliiques,  vol.  ii. 


94 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


himself  that  he  was  the  subject  of  an  experiment, 
and  on  opening  his  eyes  he  saw  opposite  him  on  the 
wall  a  luminous  patch,  and  a  bright  object  as  large 
as  a  melon  in  the  middle.  The  following  morning, 
it  appeared,  on  questioning  Bertha,  who  came  to 
the  hospital  where  Dr.  Gibotteau  was  engaged, 
that  she  had  made  three  attempts  to  influence  him, 
the  third  being  to  make  him  see  a  lantern.  His 
impression  corresponded  very  exactly  to  the  selected 
object. 

On  another  occasion  she  resolved  to  frighten 
him,  and  chose  a  skeleton,  of  all  things  in  the  world, 
as  an  object  likely  to  have  this  effect  on  a  hospital 
doctor.  Although  he  did  not  see  or  think  of  a 
skeleton,  which  would  probably  have  failed  in  its 
intended  effect,  he  had,  on  arriving  home  about 
midnight,  a  most  uneasy  feeling;  and,  although  he 
was  quite  aware  that  it  was  what  he  called  “  one 
of  Bertha’s  tricks,”  the  valiant  M.  Gibotteau  ran 
up  to  bed  and  put  his  head  under  the  bed  clothes 
in  the  briefest  space  possible.  On  another  occasion 
Dr.  Gibotteau  and  a  friend  left  Bertha  near  her 
home  and  drove  back  to  the  Quartier  Latin  in  a 
carriage  which  seems  to  have  taken  a  somewhat 
devious  route.  On  the  way  Dr.  Gibotteau  again 
felt  an  unreasoning  terror,  and  on  getting  out  of 
the  carriage  at  the  corner  of  the  “  Boul.  Mich  ”  his 
friend  reported  that  he  had  an  hallucination  of 


TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS  95 

something  white  floating  before  him.  The  follow¬ 
ing  clay  Bertha  was  able,  according  to  the  report,  to 
state  that  the  driver  had  lost  his  way,  that  Dr. 
Gibotteau  had  felt  afraid  of  nothing  at  all,  without 
reason,  and  that  they  had  seen  some  white  pigeons 
floating  round  them. 

The  successes  of  Mr.  Kirk  and  Bertha  differ 
markedly,  it  should  be  observed,  from  those  hither¬ 
to  dealt  with.  In  the  Sidgwick  experiments,  it  is 
true,  pictures  were  externalized  and  seen  projected 
on  a  card.  But  in  the  cases  now  under  considera¬ 
tion  we  are  dealing  with  full  fledged  hallucinations. 
Cases  of  this  sort  are  sufficiently  rare,  and  it  is  a 
matter  for  regret  that  more  experiments  in  this  di¬ 
rection  do  not  seem  to  have  been  tried. 

We  have  seen  that  Mr.  Kirk,  on  one  occasion,  is 
recorded  to  have  formed  part  of  a  vision.  The  hal¬ 
lucinatory  dog,  on  the  other  hand,  appeared  to  move 
among  the  objects  in  the  vicinity  of  the  percipient, 
and  in  this  respect  resembled  the  hallucinations  com¬ 
monly  termed  ghosts. 

The  recorded  phenomena  are,  it  may  be  noted, 
connected  with  the  so-called  materializations  of  the 
spiritualists,  so  far  as  they  are  not,  as  is  unfortu¬ 
nately  frequently  the  case,  of  more  mundane  origin, 
-  or,  in  other  words,  merely  the  medium  dressed  up  to 
act  the  part.  In  this  connexion  it  may  be  of 
interest  to  quote  an  early  account  by  a  good 


96  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


witness,  or  rather  recorder,  of  an  apparent  case  of 
materialization.  Some  two  hundred  and  twenty 
years  ago  Sir  John  Reresby  was  governor  of  York. 
An  old  woman  had  been  arraigned  at  the  assizes 
as  a  witch,  and  was  confined  in  Clifford  Tower, 
York  Castle.  One  of  the  soldiers  who  was  on  guard 
went  to  the  porch  to  see  what  was  causing  a  disturb¬ 
ance,  and  saw  by  the  light  of  the  moon  a  scroll  of 
paper  creep  from  under  the  door.  This  scroll  then, 
he  assured  Sir  John,  transformed  itself  into  a 
monkey,  and  finally  turned  into  the  shape  of  a 
turkey-cock,  which  passed  to  and  fro  before  him. 
Surprised  at  this,  as  well  he  might  be,  he  went  to 
the  under-keeper,  and  called  him.  The  under¬ 
keeper,  according  to  the  narrative,  saw  neither 
turkey-cock  nor  monkey,  but  only  the  scroll  of 
paper  dancing  up  and  down.  Both  witnesses  seem 
then  to  have  seen  the  scroll  creep  under  the  door 
again,  though  the  space  between  the  door  and  the 
ground  was  no  greater  than  the  thickness  of  half  a 
crown.1 

If  this  account  can  be  depended  on,  it  presents 
many  curious  features.  Not  only  was  the  sentinel 
the  subject  of  an  auditory  as  well  as  of  a  visual 
hallucination,  but  the  visual  hallucination  under¬ 
went  an  interesting  series  of  changes,  and  finally 
reverted  to  its  pristine  form,  for  all  the  world  like 
1  Reresby,  Memoirs  (London,  T734),  p.  237. 


TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS  97 

the  poodle  in  Faust.  The  hallucination  was  shared 
by  a  second  witness,  who  had,  we  may  suppose, 
received  an  account  of  the  apparition  from  his 
comrade,  and  was  consequently  prepared  to  see  a 
turkey-cock,  and  this  witness,  instead  of  accepting 
the  suggestion  of  his  fellow,  saw  the  hallucination 
in  its  original  form.  So  far  as  can  be  seen,  the 
sentry  also  saw  no  more  of  the  monkey  and  turkey- 
cock,  but  shared  the  hallucination  of  the  dancing 
paper.  Linally,  both  saw  it  disappear  in  the  way 
it  had  come. 

The  imagination  will  play  many  tricks,  and  it  is 
conceivable  that  the  second  and  third  forms  of  the 
sentry’s  hallucination  were  due  solely  to  his  imagina¬ 
tion.  This  seems,  however,  an  unnecessary  refine¬ 
ment  of  theory,  for  he  clearly  had  an  hallucination 
of  some  sort,  unless  we  suppose  that  both  he  and 
the  under-keeper  were  the  victims  of  an  exceedingly 
ingenious  trick,  the  mechanism  for  which  would 
hardly  be  within  the  reach  of  a  prisoner,  and  an  old 
woman  to  boot.  Unfortunately,  Sir  John  Reresby 
was  guiltless  of  a  knowledge  of  psychical  research 
or  telepathy,  or  any  other  idea  than  that  the  story 
must  either  he  a  lie  or  literally  true.  Accordingly, 
he  did  not  interrogate  the  witch,  and  thus  perhaps 
missed  the  opportunity  of  handing  his  name  down 
to  posterity  and  the  S.P.R.  as  the  first  man  to  record 
in  due  form  a  telepathic  experience. 


98  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Few  such  experiences  seem  to  have  been  recorded, 
though  they  were  perhaps  not  uncommon  in  the 
ages  when  belief  in  witchcraft  was  universal,  as  may 
be  seen  by  a  reference  to  the  Discourse  of  Witch¬ 
craft,  by  Fairfax,  and  other  early  detailed  records 
of  cases  of  alleged  witchcraft.  Probably  one  of  the 
first  instances  in  which  experiments  in  this  direction 
were  tried  was  a  case  recorded  by  H.  N.  Weser- 
mann,1  himself  the  agent  in  the  case  in  question  and 
four  other  trials,  some  eighty  years  ago.  Wesermann 
was  a  government  official  at  Diisseldorf,  and  seems 
to  have  been  a  careful  investigator.  Unfortunately, 
he  does  not  record  how  many  failures  there  were  in 
proportion  to  the  five  successes  which  he  mentions. 
One  of  the  trials  was  singularly  successful,  and, 
though  the  record  is  not  exactly  in  the  form  in 
which  the  psychical  researcher  of  the  present  day 
would  put  it,  the  case  is  well  worth  quoting. 

A  lady  who  had  been  dead  five  years  was  to  appear 
to  Lieutenant  A.  B.  in  a  dream  at  10.30  p.m.,  and 
incite  him  to  good  deeds.  At  half  past  ten,  con¬ 
trary  to  expectation,  Herr  A.  B.  had  not  gone  to 
bed,  but  was  sitting  in  the  ante-room  with  a  friend, 

Lieutenant  S - ,  discussing  the  French  campaign. 

Suddenly  the  door  opened  and  a  lady  entered, 
dressed  in  white  with  a  black  kerchief  and  uncovered 
head ;  she  waved  her  hand  three  times  to  S - - 

1  Dcr  Magnetismus  und  die  allgemeine  Weltsprache,  p.  27. 


TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS  99 

in  a  friendly  manner,  then*  turned  to  A.  B.  and 
nodded  to  him,  and  went  out  again  by  the  door. 

On  receiving  this  account  from  Lieutenant  A.  B. 
Wesermann  was  much  struck  by  it,  and  wrote  to 

the  other  percipient,  Lieutenant  S - ,  who  lived 

some  six  miles  away,  for  his  account  of  it,  which 
was  as  follows  : — 

“  On  the  13th  of  March,  1817,  Herr  A.  B.  came 
to  pay  me  a  visit  at  my  lodgings,  about  a  league 

from  A - .  He  stayed  the  night  with  me,  and 

after  supper,  when  we  both  were  undressed,  I  was 
sitting  on  the  bed  and  Herr  A.  B.  was  standing  by 
the  door  of  the  next  room,  also  on  the  point  of  going 
to  bed.  This  was  about  half-past  ten.  We  were 
speaking  partly  about  indifferent  topics  and  partly 
about  the  events  of  the  French  campaign.  Suddenly 
the  door  out  of  the  kitchen  opened  without  a  sound 
and  a  lady  entered,  very  pale,  taller  than  Herr  A.  B., 
about  5  ft.  4  in.  in  height,  strong  and  robust  in 
figure,  dressed  in  white  but  with  a  large  black 
kerchief,  which  reached  to  below  the  waist.  She 
entered  with  bare  head,  saluted  me  in  complimentary 
fashion  three  times  with  her  hand,  turned  to  the  left 
to  Herr  A.  B.  and  waved  her  hand  to  him  three 
times.  After  this  the  figure  went  noiselessly  out 
without  any  creaking  of  the  door.  We  followed  at 
once  to  see  if  there  was  any  deception,  but  found 
nothing.” 


ioo  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


This  remarkably  interesting  narrative  is  of  course 
from  the  evidential  point  of  view  very  defective. 
We  do  not  learn  what  the  arrangements  between 
Wesermann  and  A.  B.  were,  whether  it  was  merely 
agreed  that  an  experiment  was  to  be  tried  or  whether 
more  definite  arrangements  were  made.  We  must, 
of  course,  not  forget  that  the  element  of  suggestion 
would  not  be  one  with  which  they  would  reckon  as 
a  disturbing  factor. .  Again,  it  is  not  clear  whether 
A.  B.  knew  the  deceased  lady,  nor  whether,  if  he 
did,  he  recognized  her.  Nor  do  we  know  whether 
Herr  S - was  aware  of  the  proposed  experiment. 

In  spite  of  this,  the  narrative  is  a  striking  one, 
and  if  a  few  people  could  be  found  at  the  present 
day  with  similar  powers,  it  would  be  possible  to 
make  more  rapid  progress  in  psychical  investigation. 
The  important  point  of  the  story  is  that  the  hallu¬ 
cination  was  shared  by  a  second  percipient,  who  was, 
we  may  perhaps  assume,  ignorant  of  the  intended 
trial.  Even  if  that  were  not  so,  his  narrative  seems 
to  make  it  clear  that  he  was  unacquainted  with  the 
deceased  lady.  If  therefore  the  apparition  which 
he  saw  exactly  resembled  her — and  Wesermann 
assures  us  that  it  did — it  is  immaterial  whether 
Wesermann  and  A.  B.  had  discussed  the  matter 
previously  and  referred  to  the  lady  in  connexion 
with  the  experiment,  or  not.  If  the  narratives  are 
accurate,  and  the  discrepancies  are  insignificant, 


TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS  ioi 


the  argument  for  telepathy  can  be  based  on  the 

evidence  of  Wesermann  and  Lieutenant  S - 

alone. 

In  recent  years  a  small  number  of  trials  of  a  simi¬ 
lar  nature  have  been  recorded.  Some  of  these  were 
published  in  Phantasms  of  the  Living,1  and,  apart 
from  an  unfortunate  defect  in  the  record,  one  of 
these,  tried  by  Mr.  S.  Id.  B.,  seems  particularly 
good.2  In  1884  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Gurney,  telling  him 
that  he  was  going  to  try  an  experiment  on  March  22, 
and  that  he  would  try  to  make  him.self  appear  at 
midnight  to  Miss  King,  at  44,  Norland  Square,  W., 
he  himself  being  in  a  different  part  of  London. 
From  a  subsequent  statement  it  appears  that  he  in¬ 
tended  to  try  to  touch  the  hair  of  the  percipient,  and 
if  this  detail  had  been  mentioned  in  tbe  preliminary 
letter,  the  evidence  would  have  been  as  good  as  it 
could  possibly  be.  With  a  regrettable  lack  of  fore¬ 
sight,  the  character  of  the  attempt  was,  however, 
not  stated,  and  the  independent  evidence  is  thus  post 
facto  only,  and  given  by  Mr.  Gurney,  to  whom  Mr. 
B.  stated  shortly  after  the  trial  that  this  was  one  of 
the  points  which  made  the  experiment  successful  in 
every  detail. 

The  percipient  signed  a  statement,  which  her 
sister  corroborated,  saying  that  the  details  were 
communicated  to  her  before  hearing  from  Mr.  B., 

1  Phantasms,  i.  103  sq.  2  Loc.  cit.  p.  108. 


102  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


to  the  effect  that  on  March  22,  at  about  midnight, 
she  had  an  impression  that  Mr.  B.  was  present  in 
her  room,  and  came  towards  her  and  stroked  her 
hair.  The  agent  was  informed  of  the  success  of  the 
experiment  some  days  after  the  experiment,  and 
took  down  the  percipient’s  account,  which  she 
volunteered  without  prompting  from  him,  from 
dictation.  Experiments  of  this  sort,  evidenced  by 
contemporaneous  records,  are  unfortunately  rare. 
Too  many  experimenters  are  content,  like  Miss 
Verity,  to  record  their  impressions  some  time  after 
their  occurrence. 

Another  interesting  case  was  that  of  the  Rev. 
Clarence  Godfrey.  In  1886,  after  reading  Phan¬ 
tasms  of  the  Living,  he  was  seized  with  a  desire  to 
try  an  experiment  similar  to  the  ones  just  summar¬ 
ized.  According  to  his  report,  he  never  even  men¬ 
tioned  that  he  proposed  to  try  an  experiment, 
much  less  that  he  proposed  to  try  and  appear 
“  spiritually  *’  at  the  foot  of  a  lady’s  bed.  In  this 
respect  his  example  is  excellent,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  it  is  altogether  wise  to  try  experi¬ 
ments  of  this  sort  without  any  warning.  Even  if 
propriety  does  not  forbid  to  appear  spiritually  at 
the  foot  of  the  bed  of  a  person  of  the  opposite  sex 
(it  must  be  remembered  that  there  are  cases  on 
record  in  which  the  agent  seems  to  have  been 
reciprocally  aware  of  the  surroundings  of  the  per- 


TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS  103 


cipient,  and  indeed  it  was  to  some  extent  the  case 
in  the  present  trial),  care  should  at  least  be  taken 
to  discover  whether  an  apparition  of  the  sort  de¬ 
scribed  would  have  a  bad  effect  on  their  nerves.  It 
is  very  desirable  to  keep  the  evidential  quality  of 
the  experiments  at  a  high  level,  but  it  is  hardly  justi¬ 
fiable  to  endanger  the  health  of  one’s  friends  in  order 
to  do  so. 

Mr.  Godfrey  tried  the  experiment  after  going  to 
bed,  and  kept  up  the  effort  to  appear  for  about  eight 
minutes,  so  far  as  he  could  judge.  He  quickly  tired, 
and  was  soon  asleep.  In  a  dream  he  seemed  to 
meet  the  lady,  and  at  once  inquired  if  she  had  seen 
him.  The  reply  was,  “  I  was  sitting  beside  you,” 
and  then  Mr.  Godfrey  woke  up.  His  watch  showed 
3.40  a.m. 

O11  the  following  day  Mr.  Godfrey  received  from 
the  percipient,  whether  spontaneously  or  in  answer 
to  questions  is  not  stated,  an  account  of  the  incident, 
which  was  subsequently  reduced  to  writing.  It  is 
very  unfortunate  that  so  few  people  understand  the 
necessity  of  recording  such  phenomena  on  the  spot, 
not  only  in  order  to  guard  against  any  failure  of 
memory  and  subsequent  hallucinatory  recollection, 
such  as  we  are  all  familiar  with  when  we  attempt  to 
recall  a  dream  a  few  hours  after  its  occurrence,  and 
find  ourselves  recalling  not  the  dream  itself  but 
rather  our  recollection  of  it  as  we  remembered  when 


104 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


we  told  the  story,  possibly  with  some  embellishment, 
at  the  breakfast  table. 

The  percipient,  it  appears,  woke  at  about  half  past 
three  with  the  impression  that  some  one  had  entered 
her  room.  Experiencing  a  strange  restless  longing 
to  leave  the  room,  she  got  up  and  went  down  stairs 
to  get  some  soda  water.  On  the  way  back  an  ap¬ 
parition  of  Mr.  Godfrey  was  seen  on  the  staircase, 
dressed,  not  in  the  apparel  which  he  actually  had 
on  at  that  moment,  but  in  his  usual  clothes.  He 
stood  there  for  some  seconds,  and  the  percipient, 
according  to  her  narrative,  was  satisfied  with  a  very 
short  look,  and  then  went  on  upstairs,  whereupon  the 
figure  vanished. 

Two  other  trials  were  made  by  the  same  experi¬ 
menters,  one  of  which  was  a  failure,  being  tried 
under  unsuitable  circumstances.  The  other  was  a 
success,  though  less  striking  perhaps  than  that  in  the 
first  experiment. 

Striking  as  the  experiments  recorded  in  this 
chapter  are,  they  are  not  very  numerous.  In  order 
to  be  evidential,  such  experiments  require  to  be 
recorded  with  the  most  rigorous  exactness,  by  pre¬ 
ference,  indeed,  by  an  independent  observer,  who 
can  keep  his  mind  to  the  question  of  evidence  and 
record  details  which  the  agent  or  percipient  might 
in  their  absorption  in  their  experiment  fail  to 
observe  or  record.  The  importance  of  this  is  seen 


TELEPATHIC  HALLUCINATIONS  105 

in  the  first  Kirk  case,  where  none  of  the  facts  were 
recorded  at  the  time,  though  Mr.  Kirk  himself  evi¬ 
dently  had  the  idea  of  some  sort  of  experiment  in 
his  mind. 

Not  only  must  the  record  be  exact  in  case  of  the 
successes ;  it  must  also  not  fail  to  record  the  failures. 
It  is  indeed  desirable,  where  such  experiments  are 
being  tried,  for  a  record  of  the  intended  trial  to  be 
sent  to  the  S.P.R.  or  other  body  that  can  be  trusted 
to  preserve  it,  and  then  for  each  party  to  the  trial 
to  post  their  reports  immediately  after  the  trial, 
making  such  additions  as  may  seem  necessary  at  a 
later  date.  The  faculty  is  probably  a  rare  one,  and 
perhaps  not  one  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of 
trials  would  show  any  result.  Given,  however,  an 
agent  and  percipient  who  do  achieve  some  measure 
of  success,  and  their  percentage  may  reach  seventy 
or  eighty  per  cent.  The  case  for  telepathy  will  then, 
it  is  clear,  not  rest  on  the  proportion  between  the 
total  number  of  trials  and  the  total  number  of  suc- 
-  cesses,  but  on  the  proportions  in  the  trials  by  the 
more  gifted  experimenters,  always  provided  that 
their  series  are  sufficiently  long  to  exclude  chance 
coincidence  as  a  probable  cause. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Telepathic  Hypnotism — Telepathic  Dreams 

Although,  properly  speaking,  the  production  of 
the  hypnotic  state  by  means  of  mental  suggestion 
does  not  fall  within  the  limits  of  a  work  dealing 
with  thought  transference,  inasmuch  as  it  cannot 
be  alleged  that  any  idea  is,  or  appears  to  be,  trans¬ 
ferred,  the  subject  of  the  induction  of  sleep,  either 
at  a  distance  or  from  close  quarters  without  verbal 
or  other  means  which  influence  the  patient  through 
the  ordinary  channels  of  sense,  is  sufficiently  ger¬ 
mane  to  the  subject  under  discussion  to  make  an 
outline  of  some  of  the  more  important  experiments 
desirable  at  this  point. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  some  of  the 
magnetizers  detected,  or  believed  that  they  detected, 
what  they  termed  community  of  sensation  between., 
the  operator  and  his  patient.  Many  of  these  early 
experiments  are,  however,  of  little  value  evidentially, 
for  the  very  simple  reason  that  suggestion  was 
unrecognized  in  the  days  when  all  the  phenomena 
were  put  down  to  the  passage  of  a  magnetic  fluid. 
Even  in  the  case  of  experiments  in  our  own  day 


106 


TELEPATHIC  HYPNOTISM 


107 


when  this  source  of  error  is  sufficiently  well  known, 
we  cannot  always  be  sure  that  it  is  sufficiently 
guarded  against,  when  the  operator  and  patient 
are  in  close  proximity.  Apropos  of  the  clever 
horse  Hans,  whose  performances  have  puzzled 
the  scientific  men,  or  some  of  them,  of  Germany, 
a  story  has  been  told  of  a  dog  belonging  to  Sir 
William  Huggins.  This  dog,  either  with  or  with¬ 
out  training,  it-  was  not  quite  clear  which  from  the 
narrative,  gained  the  power  of  interpreting  its 
master's  unconscious  indications  so  greatly  that  it 
was  able  to  select  from  a  pile  of  letters  the  one 
chosen  by  him,  even  though  he  stood  behind  the 
dog  and  out  of  its  sight,  the  explanation  being  that 
when  the  dog  in  trying  letter  after  letter  arrives 
at  the  right  one,  the  subtle  change  in  the  respiratory 
movements  of  its  master,  or  some  equally  recondite 
source  of  information,  gives  it  the  necessary  clue. 
The  thinking  horse’s  performances  are,  of  course, 
on  a  different  plane.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
he  had  been  deliberately  trained  to  take  cognizance 
of  the  signals  of  his  master.  The  only  remarkable 
point  about  the  affair  is  that  any  ordinarily  acute 
man  should  have  been  puzzled  by  the  trick ;  much 
more  a  man*  of  science  from  the  Fatherland,  some 
of  whose  sons  make  it  their  boast  that  “  psychical 
research  and  all  that  humbug  ”  may  find  a  home 
in  England,  but  never  for  a  moment  imposes  on 


108  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

the  more  acute  Teutonic  man  of  science.  About 
this,  however,  it  is  possible  to  hold  another  opinion.1 

If  a  mere  dog  can  thus  seize  the  clues  uncon¬ 
sciously  given  and  deal  with  matters  which  it  does 
not  in  the  least  comprehend,  like  letters  and  num¬ 
bers,  it  is  clear  that  human  beings  may  far  more 
readily  pick  up  slight  indications,  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  which  will  enable  them  to  carry  out  the  will 
of  the  operator  in  matters  of  which  they  are  fully 
cognizant.  While,  therefore,  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  all  experiments  carried  out  when  the  agent 
and  patient  are  within  earshot  of  each  other  are 
necessarily  subject  to  this  criticism,  it  is  clear  that 
their  evidential  quality  must  be  inferior  to  others, 
equally  good  in  results,  carried  out  when  agent  and 
patient  are  so  far  removed  as  to  make  appreciation 
of  the  wishes  of  the  agent  a  greater  miracle  if  it  is 
due  to  the  operation  of  the  ordinary  senses  than  it 
would  be  if  it  were  due  to  that  other  means  of 
communication  to  which  the  name  of  telepathy  is 
given. 

Fortunately,  there  is  more  than  one  well-attested 
case  of  the  induction  of  hypnotic  sleep  under  due 
precautions  by  operators  of  reputation  in  the  world 

1  Since  the  above  was  written  a  committee  has  reported 
that  there  is  no  evidence  of  anything  beyond  quick  apprehen¬ 
sion  of  his  master’s  signs  on  the  part  of  the  horse.  The  two 
committees  seem  to  have  been  independent. 


TELEPATHIC  HYPNOTISM 


109 


of  science,  when  the  distance  between  agent  and 
patient  was  such  as  to  make  the  hypothesis  of 
ordinary  sense  transmission  absolutely  absurd.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  case  of  Madame  B.,  a  French 
peasant  woman,  on  whom  Dr.  Gihert  of  Havre  and 
Dr.  Pierre  Janet  tried  experiments  in  1885  and 
1886,  some  of  them  in  the  presence  of  members  of 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 

Before  describing  the  experiments  in  question, 
it  may  be  well  to  say  that  the  patient  had  shown 
herself  remarkably  susceptible,  and  that  there 
were  indications  that  the  hypnotic  state  was  pro¬ 
duced  rather  by  the  operator's  will  than  by  any  of 
his  acts,  even  when  he  was  in  her  presence  and 
actually  in  contact  with  her.  Dr.  Janet  remarks, 
for  example,  that  it  was  necessary,  in  order  to 
entrance  Madame  B.,  to  concentrate  one’s  thought 
intensely  on  the  suggestion  to  sleep  which  was 
given  her ;  the  more  the  operator’s  thought  wan¬ 
dered,  the  more  difficult  it  was  to  induce  the  trance. 
This  influence  of  the  operator’s  thought,  however 
extraordinary  it  may  seem,  predominates  in  this 
case  to  such  an  extent  that  it  replaces  all  other 
causes.  If  one  presses  Madame  B.’s  hand  without 
the  thought  of  hypnotizing  her,  the  trance  is  not 
induced ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  to 
send  her  to  sleep  by  thinking  of  it  without  pressing 
her  hand. 


I  IO 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


For  the  reasons  mentioned  above,  this  class  of  ex¬ 
periment  is  hardly  conclusive,  and  can  never  be 
made  conclusive,  however  careful  the  experi¬ 
menters  may  be.  A  fortiori  is  it  impossible  to 
record  the  experiments  in  such  a  way  as  to  make 
it  clear  to  the  reader  that  the  precautions  taken 
were  sufficient.  When  we  essay  experiments  at  a 
distance,  however,  the  case  is  otherwise.  Not 
only  are  the  necessary  precautions  far  simpler,  but 
there  is  never  any  necessity  for  hurry.  The  ob¬ 
servers  can  record  at  their  leisure,  and  the  attention 
to  detail  thus  rendered  possible  should  put  an  ordi¬ 
narily  intelligent  reporter  in  a  position  to  make 
clear  to  his  readers  exactly  what  happened.  It  is 
impossible  here  to  give  the  experiments  in  detail. 
Those  who  desire  to  judge  of  the  precautions  taken, 
and  of  the  completeness  of  the  record,  must  refer 
to  Prof.  Janet’s  paper  on  the  subject  in  the  Revue 
Phil.  (Aug.,  1886),  or  to  the  account  in  the  Proc. 
S.R.R.  (iv.  127,  sq.). 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  distance  between 
the  operator  and  the  subject  was  in  no  case  less 
than  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  sufficient,  one  may 
imagine,  to  exclude  the  operation  of  suggestion 
through  the  ordinary  senses.  One  determined 
opponent  of  telepathy,  however,  has  been  found 
to  suggest,  either  in  this  or  in  a  similar  case,  that 
the  subject  became  aware  of  an  attempt  to  hypno- 


TELEPATHIC  HYPNOTISM 


1 1 1 


tize  her,  because  the  mental  concentration  on  the 
part  of  the  operator  increased  the  arterial  tension 
in  his  circulatory  system,  and  that  though  the 
distance  between  operator  and  subject  was  at  tbe 
least  several  hundred  yards,  such  was  the  state  of 
hyperaesthesia  to  which  the  latter,  for  no  reason 
assignable,  bad  been  brought,  that  she  was  able  at 
that  distance  to  hear  the  change  in  the  throb  of 
the  agent’s  arteries,  and  from  the  change  to  infer 
that  he  was  trying  to  hypnotize  her.  Of  a  truth 
science  has  her  miracles,  especially  when  some 
obnoxious  fact  bas  to  be  explained  in  some  respect¬ 
able  manner.  Not  the  least  miracle  is  that  any 
sane  man  should  be  found  to  suggest  that  such  a 
state  of  hyperaesthesia  may  exist  and  yet  not  be 
detected  by  trained  physiologists  who  are  conduct¬ 
ing  the  experiments.  The  state  of  mind  of  such 
a  critic  is  only  comparable  to  that  of  the  insurance 
company’s  expert  who  assured  the  court,  in  a  dis¬ 
puted  case,  that  slipping  on  a  piece  of  banana  skin 
was  evidence  of  a  dangerous  mental  state,  and  that 
the  policy  of  an  assured  person  who  made  a  claim 
for  an  accident  of  a  different  kind  should  be  held 
to  be  invalid,  because  he  had  concealed  from  the 
company,  at  the  time  of  effecting  his  insurance,  that 
he  had  once  sprained  his  knee  through  slipping  on  a 
piece  of  banana  skin. 

As  a  disproof  of  the  hypothesis  of  accidental 


1 12 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


coincidence,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  Madame  B. 
only  twice,  so  far  as  is  known,  fell  into  a  hypnotic 
trance  spontaneously  during  several  weeks  that  she 
was  under  observation;  not  only  so,  but  on  one  of 
these  occasions  it  was  clear  that  it  was  only  a  relapse 
into  a  hypnotic  trance  from  which  she  had  been 
insufficiently  awakened ;  in  the  other  case  she 
entranced  herself  by  looking  at  the  picture  of  her 
hypnotist,  Dr.  Gibert,  which  is  very  far  indeed 
from  being  a  case  of  ordinary  spontaneous  trance, 
especially  if,  as  is  possible,  Dr.  Gibert  had  ever 
entranced  her  by  the  method  of  staring  at  her. 

In  all,  from  October,  1885,  to  May  in  the  follow¬ 
ing  year,  twenty-five  experiments  were  tried. 
Of  these  nineteen  only  were  reckoned  as  successes, 
though  in  several  other  cases  there  was  a  more  or 
less  marked  influence  on  the  patient.  As  a  typical 
case  may  be  quoted  the  experiment  of  April  24, 
1886,  as  described  by  F.  W.  H.  Myers:  “On 
April  24,  the  whole  party  [consisting  of  F.  W.  H 
Myers,  A.  T.  Myers,  Dr.  Gibert,  Prof.  Janet,  Dr. 
Ochorowicz,  and  my  late  friend,  Leon  Marillier] 
chanced  to  meet  at  M.  Janet’s  house  at  3  p.m., 
and  he  then  at  my  (i.e.  F.  W.  H.  Myers’s)  suggestion 
entered  his  study  to  will  that  Madame  B.  should 
sleep.  We  waited  in  his  garden,  and  at  3.20  pro¬ 
ceeded  together  to  the  Pavilion  (where  Madame  B. 
resided  with  a  sister  of  Dr.  Gibert’s),  which  I 


TELEPATHIC  HYPNOTISM  113 

entered  first  at  3.30,  and  found  Madame  B.  pro¬ 
foundly  sleeping  over  her  sewing,  having  ceased 
to  sew.  Becoming  talkative,  she  said  to  M.  Janet 
“  C’est  vous  qui  m’avez  commanded’  She  said  she 
fell  asleep  at  3.5  p.m. 

From  this  narrative  it  is  clear  that  the  selection 
of  the  time  was  in  the  hands  of  an  entirely  inde¬ 
pendent  person.  It  would,  of  course,  be  ridiculous 
to  suppose  that  Prof.  Janet  was  in  collusion  with 
Madame  B.,  but  experience  of  the  foolish  objec¬ 
tions  urged  against  apparently  perfect  experi¬ 
ments  teaches  one  to  meet  every  possible  and 
impossible  criticism.  The  party  having  met  by 
chance,  there  was  no  possibility  of  M.  Janet’s 
having  accidentally  communicated  to  Madame  B. ; 
that  they  were  likely  to  meet  at  the  hour  of  3  p.m. ; 
consequently  auto-suggestion  on  her  part  seems  to 
be  excluded.  Bearing  in  mind  the  remarkable 
appreciation  of  time  by  hypnotized  subjects,  to 
which  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Milne  Bramwell  bear 
such  conclusive  testimony,  we  may  fairly  conclude 
that  the  hour  given  by  Madame  B.  as  that  at  which 
she  was  entranced  was  nearly  correct.  1  he  only 
criticism  possible,  and  that  affects  only  a  very 
minor  item  of  the  case,  is  that  Madame  B.  may 
have  gone  to  sleep  earlier  or  later  instead  of  at 
almost  exactly  the  time  at  which  Prof.  Janet 
willed  her  to  go  to  sleep,  and  that  her  mention  of 


1 14  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


the  hour  of  3.5  was  clue  to  a  suggestion  somehow 
conveyed  unintentionally  by  one  of  the  party — a 
thing  improbable  in  itself,  and  almost  certain  to 
have  attracted  the  attention  of  one  or  other  of  the 
trained  observers  who  made  up  the  party.  It 
might  indeed  also  be  objected  that  Madame  B.  was 
only  simulating  sleep ;  but  against  this  hypothesis 
must  be  put  the  testimony  of  men  of  great  experi¬ 
ence  in  such  matters  that  she  was  really  entranced. 
It  might  also  be  objected  in  the  particular  case 
under  discussion  that  she  may  have  observed  the 
approach  of  the  party,  and  that  this  operated  as 
a  suggestion.  But  in  reply  to  this  it  suffices  to 
point  out  that  she  named  as  the  hour  when  she 
entered  the  trance  a  period  before  the  party  had 
come  in  sight  of  the  Pavilion,  or  even  left  the 
garden  of  M.  Janet’s  house;  and  secondly,  that 
she  was  in  some  of  the  experiments  kept  under 
observation  by  some  of  the  party,  so  far  as  possible 
without  disclosing  their  presence  to  her  for  fear 
of  the  knowledge  that  she  was  being  observed 
operating  as  a  suggestion  or  otherwise  interfering 
with  the  success  of  the  experiments,  and  that  the 
suggestions  of  the  distant  operator  were  carried 
out  under  circumstances  which  preclude  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  their  having  been  in  some  way  transmitted 
by  one  of  the  observers  through  the  ordinary  chan¬ 
nels  of  the  subject’s  senses. 


TELEPATHIC  HYPNOTISM 


115 

This  successful  series  of  experiments  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  another  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year, 
in  which  the  measure  of  success  was  far  less,  though 
still  considerably  above  what  could  he  attributed 
to  chance  coincidence.  A  summary  of  the  results 
will  he  found  in  the  Proc.  S.P.R.,  v.  43-45.  Though 
the  diminished  number  of  successes,  to  some  extent, 
lessens  the  evidential  value  of  the  whole  series,  it 
should  not  he  overlooked  that,  if  telepathy  is  a 
fact,  such  variation  is  exactly  what  might  he 
expected.  Both  portions  of  the  whole  series  being 
above  expectation,  it  cannot  he  contended  that 
later  failures  cause  the  argument  founded  on  the 
earlier  results  to  fall  to  the  ground. 

The  argument  for  mental  suggestion  from  the 
facts  of  hypnotism  apparently  at  a  distance  gains 
much  force  from  a  series  of  extraordinarily  careful 
experiments  on  the  same  subject,  tried  by  Prof. 
Richet  in  Paris  with  the  same  subject,  whom  he 
designates  by  the  name  of  Leonie.  These  trials 
are  discussed  by  M.  Richet  with  great  acuteness 
and  absence  of  bias  in  Proc.  S.P.R.,  v.  18  sq.,  and 
although  he  only  claims  that  two  of  his  nine  trials 
were  successful,  and  four  partially  successful,  his 
canons  of  evidence  are  so  high  that  this  proportion 
is  sufficiently  striking.  Prof.  Picket’s  narrative 
is  an  exact  resume  of  his  notes  made  each  day 
immediately  after  such  experiment,  and  cannot 


1 16  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


be  abridged  without  diminishing  its  value  as  evi¬ 
dence  ;  I  therefore  refrain  from  reproducing  them 
here,  and  merely  refer  my  readers  to  M.  Richet’s 
own  words — 

“It  is  important  to  notice  that  in  all  these  ex¬ 
periments  the  trance  not  infrequently  supervened 
some  time  after  the  operator  willed  it ;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  not  a  single  clear  case  where  the 
patient  was  entranced  too  soon,  and  on  the  few 
doubtful  cases  no  stress  can  be  laid.  In  consider¬ 
ing  the  possibility  of  coincidence  and  auto-suggestion 
this  feature  is  of  much  importance.” 

In  a  work  dealing  with  telepathy  the  subject  of 
dreams  cannot  be  entirely  neglected,  though  evi¬ 
dence  drawn  from  them  is,  in  more  than  one  respect, 
less  satisfactory  than  that  drawn  from  experiences 
in  the  normal  waking  state  or  the  hypnotic  sleep. 
In  the  first  place,  dreams  are  extraordinarily 
numerous  and  varied.  There  is  therefore  a  great 
danger  of  improper  selection.  Even  where  any 
one  sets  him  or  herself  to  experiment  systematically 
there  is  always  the  possibility  that  they  have  had 
several  dreams  on  one  night,  or,  it  may  be,  a  multi¬ 
tude  of  dreams  on  one  night,  for  there  is  no  way 
of  finding  out  how  much  we  dream  except  by 
recalling  them  in  our  waking  hours,  and  we  have 
no  assurance  that  the  dreams  recalled  when  we  wake 
are  more  than  a  small  proportion  of  the  whole 


TELEPATHIC  DREAMS  117 

number  which  an  automatic  record,  if  such  a  thing 
were  possible,  would  have  shown  to  have  passed 
through  our  minds,  or  that  part  of  them  which  is 
occupied  in  producing  dreams.  Now  the  evidence 
for  telepathy  is  not  likely,  in  the  long  run,  to  be 
over-estimated,  so  far  as  it  is  based  on  results  with 
dreams,  for  we  can  readily  secure  that  there  shall 
be  no  undue  selection  in  the  way  of  recording  only 
those  dreams  which  show  a  connexion  with  the 
selected  subject.  All  that  is  necessary  is  for  the 
dreamer  to  record  before  bearing  from  the  agent 
all  available  data  with  regard  to  the  dreams,  and 
for  no  subsequent  modification  of  the  recollection 
of  the  dreams  to  be  allowed  any  weight. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  evidence  for  tele¬ 
pathy  may  easily  be  under-estimated.  If  A  is  in 
the  habit  of  dreaming  ten  times  each  night,  we  may 
assume  that  an  attempt  at  mental  suggestion  will 
only  influence  a  certain  proportion  of  these  at  most, 
possibly  only  one.  Now,  if  A  has  a  telepathic 
dream  every  night,  but  habitually  forgets  nine  out 
of  his  ten  dreams,  he  will  recall  his  successful  tele¬ 
pathic  dream  only  once  in  ten  nights;  the  result 
of  this  will  be  that  the  experiments  will  show  only 
one-tenth  of  the  proportion  of  successes  which 
were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  attained.  The  difficulty 
may  indeed  be,  to  some  extent,  overcome  by  a  sug¬ 
gestion  from  the  agent  that  the  dream  to  be 


i  iS  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

remembered  is  the  dream  telepathically  induced ; 
and  if  telepathy  is  a  fact  this  should  operate  to 
diminish  the  cause  of  failure,  or  apparent  failure, 
just  alluded  to.  Even  then,  however,  we  cannot 
he  sure  that  the  statistics  are  not  erroneous. 
Experiments  in  which  the  subject  cannot  recall 
his  experiences  with  accuracy,  nor  yet  describe 
them  at  the  moment  of  their  occurrence,  can  only 
occupy  a  subordinate  place  in  the  psychical  scheme. 

Not  only  is  it  difficult  to  make  sure  that  all 
dreams  are  recalled,  but  it  is  even  more  difficult  to 
recall  the  details  even  of  those  dreams  which  we 
know  to  have  occurred.  At  the  moment  of  waking 
perhaps  they  are,  or  seem  to  be,  fresh  in  our 
memories,  but  almost  before  we  have  got  pencil 
and  paper  to  note  them  down  they  are  gone.  Some¬ 
times  they  are  revived  again  in  the  evening.  We 
all  (or  if  not  all,  at  any  rate  many  of  us)  know  that 
an  inebriated  subject  will  sometimes,  like  a  som¬ 
nambulist,  take  an  object  and  put  it  away;  in  his 
sober  moments  he  quite  fails  to  recall  the  fact,  or 
if  he  recalls  it,  he  forgets  the  locality  in  which  the 
object  is  deposited.  It  is  possible,  however,  to 
reawaken  his  memory  of  the  incident  by  reducing 
him  again  to  a  state  of  inebriation.  The  same 
thing  perhaps  occurs,  though  to  a  less  noticeable 
extent,  in  our  transition  from  wakefulness  to  sleep, 
and  vice  versa.  The  facts  of  the  dream,  remem- 


TELEPATHIC  DREAMS 


1 19 

berecl  in  the  morning  before  we  are  fully  awake, 
are  recalled  at  night  when  we  reach  the  same  stage 
of  sleepiness.  But  this  naturally  does  not  help  us 
to  record  the  dream ;  the  cause  which  prevented 
us  from  doing  so  in  the  morning  is  there  in  the 
evening,  and  there  is  the  additional  difficulty  that 
we  are  probably  resigned  to  getting  up  in  the 
morning,  whereas  in  the  evening  we  are  very  far 
from  being  anxious  to  rouse  ourselves. 

Here  too,  perhaps,  suggestion  might  be  useful. 
So  far  as  I  know,  no  experiments  of  any  import¬ 
ance  in  this  direction  have  been  tried,  but  it  would 
be  interesting  to  see  how  far  suggestion  succeeds 
in  recalling  to  the  ordinary  person  the  dreams 
which  have  passed  through  his  mind  a  few  hours 
previously,  only  to  be  forgotten  as  soon  as  the  full 
stream  of  waking  consciousness  begins  to  flow. 

Many  coincidental  dreams  have,  of  course,  been 
recorded.  With  them,  however,  we  are  not  con¬ 
cerned.  We  have  only  to  deal  with  the  cases  in 
which  the  dream  was  or  appeared  to  be  the  out¬ 
come  of  a  pre-arranged  experiment.  Allusion  has 
already  been  made  to  the  striking  experiment 
recorded  by  Wesermann,  and  it  will  be  recollected 
that  the  experiment  was  to  have  resulted  in  a 
dream  of  the  lady  whose  apparition  was  seen  by 
the  two  officers.  The  four  other  cases  recorded 
by  Wesermann  are  also  of  the  same  class,  and  in 


120  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


their  case  nothing  interfered  with  carrying  out  the 
trial  as  originally  arranged.  We  have,  however 
as  remarked  above,  no  certainty  that  Wesermann 
recorded  his  failures  as  well  as  his  successes,  and 
this  virtually  invalidates  his  narratives  from  the 
point  of  view  of  evidence,  so  far  as  the  dream  cases 
are  concerned;  the  apparition  is,  of  course,  in  a 
different  class,  for  it  was  probably  the  only  case 
of  its  kind. 

A  long  and  interesting  series  of  experiments  tried 
by  Dr.  Ermacora,  of  Padua,  with  a  child  between 
three  and  four  years  old,  are  of  some  interest.1  He 
was  experimenting  in  1892  with  a  medium  for 
automatic  writing  and  other  phenomena.  Accident 
suggested  that  a  little  girl,  a  cousin  of  the  medium’s, 
of  the  age  of  three  and  a  half,  was  a  good  telepathic 
subject,  and  Dr.  Ermacora  undertook  a  long  series 
of  trials,  the  object  of  which  was  to  see  how  far  a 
personality  that  manifested  itself  by  automatic 
writing  was  able  to  induce  telepathic  dreams  in  the 
child.  So  far  as  Dr.  Ermacora  is  concerned  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any  precautions  which 
he  considered  desirable  to  avoid  verbal  or  other 
ordinary  forms  of  suggestion  were  omitted.  But 
he  seems  to  have  assumed  the  good  faith  of  the 
medium  and  her  relatives,  and  this  in  view  of  some 
experience  in  the  matter  seems  to  me  to  be  un- 
1  Proc.  S.P.R.  v.  255-308. 


TELEPATHIC  DREAMS 


121 


desirable.  Not  only  professional  mediums  but 
amateurs  who  have  nothing  to  gain  in  a  pecuniary 
sense  from  success  or  failure  are  quite  capable  of 
attempting,  and  do  actually  attempt,  to  deceive  in¬ 
vestigators  in  a  way  that  would  be  astonishing  if  it 
were  less  common. 

Although  but  few  records  of  the  experiments 
have  been  published,  the  telepathic  trials  between 
Dr.  van  Eeden  and  Mrs.  Thompson  cannot  be 
passed  over.  Mrs.  Thompson  is  a  Hampstead 
lady,  not  a  professional  medium,  whose  trance 
phenomena  are  of  great  interest.  Among  other 
members  of  the  S.P.R.  who  have  had  sittings  with 
her  is  Dr.  van  Eeden,  of  Bussum,  Holland.  At  the 
close  of  a  series  of  sittings  at  the  end  of  1899  it  was 
arranged  that  Nelly,  a  personality  that  appears, 
together  with  others,  in  Mrs.  Thompson’s  trance, 
should  make  an  attempt  to  enter  into  communica¬ 
tion  with  Dr.  van  Eeden  after  his  return  to  Holland. 
It  should  be  mentioned  that  Dr.  van  Eeden  has 
been  in  the  habit  of  observing  his  dreams  for  a  long 
time,  and  that  he  can  carry  out  in  his  dreams 
actions  which  he  has  planned  to  execute.  In 
pursuance  of  this  scheme  he  made  up  his  mind  to 
call  Nelly  on  the  first  occasion  on  which  be  had, 
what  he  terms,  “  a  clear  dream,”  that  is,  one  in 
which  his  volition  is  sufficiently  active  to  permit 
him  to  execute  what  he  has  previously  planned. 


122  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

The  last  sitting  at  which  Dr.  van  Eeden  was 
present  in  1899  was  held  on  December  4.  On 
January  3  Dr.  van  Eeden  recorded  in  his  diary 
that  on  the  previous  night  he  had  had  a  clear 
dream,  and  called  Nelly.  His  account  goes  on: 
“  She  appeared  to  me  in  the  form  of  a  little  girl, 
rather  plump  and  healthy-looking,  with  loose,  light- 
coloured  hair.  .  .  .  This  was  the  second  dream  of 
the  sort  after  my  stay  in  England.  The  first  oc¬ 
curred  on  December  1 1 .  In  this  dream  I  also  tried 
to  call  Nelly,  but  it  was  no  success.” 

The  first  point  to  be  noted  in  connexion  with 
this  incident  is  that  between  December  4  and  the 
night  of  January  2-3  five  sittings  at  least  had  been 
held  with  Mrs.  Thompson,  and  at  none  of  them  did 
Nelly  make  any  remark  about  any  summons  from 
Dr.  van  Eeden.  On  January  5,  however,  she 
remarked,  “  Tell  Dr.  van  Eeden  he  kept  calling 
me  last  night.”  It  is  true  there  is  a  mistake  of  a 
day  here,  but  it  is  easy  to  make  too  much  of  an 
error  of  this  sort.  For  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  Nelly  is  inaccurate  with  regard  to  dates,  even 
when  they  relate  to  incidents  of  which  she  shows 
supernormal  knowledge.  (It  is  impossible  to  deal 
with  this  question  here,  however,  at  length.  It 
must  be  postponed  to  a  future  volume  on  trance- 
mediumship.) 

The  next  point  is  that  Dr.  van  Eeden  describes 


TELEPATHIC  DREAMS  123 

Nelly  as  having  light  hair.  Now  at  a  sitting  on 
November  29,  at  which  Dr.  van  Eeden  was  present, 
Nelly  had  described  herself  as  having  black  curly 
hair.  The  dream  figure  was  therefore  by  no  means 
what  we  should  expect  if  Dr.  van  Eeden’s  mind 
alone  had  been  operative  in  producing  it. 

At  a  later  sitting  Nelly,  it  is  true,  described  her¬ 
self  as  having  light  hair  (this  was  on  January  18, 
so  that  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  Dr.  van  Eeden’s 
idea  of  Nelly).  On  a  subsequent  occasion  Nelly, 
however,  stated  that  the  description  of  January  18 
referred  not  to  herself  but  to  Elsie,  another  per¬ 
sonality  who  appears  in  Mrs.  Thompson’s  trances. 
(On  this  question  see  the  reports  of  the  sittings, 
Proc.  S.P.R.j  xvii.  1 1 3. )  Whether  this  is  so  or  not, 
the  interesting  point  is  that,  on  January  18,  Nelly 
stated  that  Elsie  had  been  to  Dr.  van  Eeden  in 
December,  and  that  her  description  of  Elsie,  which 
was  absolutely  independent,  so  far  as  normally  ac¬ 
quired  knowledge  goes,  of  Dr.  van  Eeden’s  ac¬ 
count  of  his  dream  visitor,  tallies  with  the  latter, 
although  Dr.  van  Eeden  was  expecting  to  see  quite 
a  different  person. 

In  the  third  place,  Nelly  stated  on  January  5 
that  Dr.  van  Eeden  was  in  bed,  alone,  not  with  his 
wife,  and  that  he  was  “  inside  those  curtains.” 
Dr.  van  Eeden  writes  that  these  particulars  are 
correct;  he  was  alone,  and  curtains,  or  rather 


124 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


drapery,  was  before  the  bed.  Slight  therefore  though 
the  incident  is,  there  are  no  material  errors  of  de¬ 
tail,  the  only  one  being  the  post-dating  of  the  dream, 
which  is  unimportant,  whereas  antedating  would,  of 
course,  have  been  a  fatal  flaw. 

Dr.  van  Eeden’s  next  clear  dream  was  on  Jan¬ 
uary  15.  At  the  sitting  with  Mrs.  Thompson  on 
the  following  day  Nelly  made  no  allusion  to  it,  but 
on  January  18  she  stated  that  Elsie  had  told  her 
before  January  16  that  “  Old  Whiskers  ”  in  the 
bed  was  calling  her.  Nelly’s  reply  was  “  Bother 
Whiskers !  You  go,”  and  she  added  “  and  very 
likely  she  did  go.” 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  Nelly  says  she  was  told 
by  another  trance  personality,  it  is  of  considerable 
interest  that  Dr.  van  Eeden  accidentally,  as  he  noted 
in  his  diary,  began  to  call  Elsie  in  his  dream  instead 
of  Nelly.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  this  dream 
visitor  appeared.  This  agrees  with  Nelly’s  state¬ 
ment  that  she  did  not  go. 

Trivial  as  the  incidents  may  appear,  they  are 
evidentially  important  when  we  reflect  how  remote 
is  the  probability  that  Nelly  would  hit  upon  the 
dates  and  details  by  accident,  and  that  Dr.  van 
Eeden,  on  his  side,  would  see  a  figure  corresponding 
to  Nelly’s  description,  though  not  to  his  own  ex¬ 
pectation,  on  the  one  occasion  out  of  three  clear 
dreams  when  Nelly  stated  that  a  visit  had  been 


TELEPATHIC  DREAMS 


125 


paid  to  him.  As  bearing  on  the  possibility  of  co¬ 
incidence,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  after  Dr.  van 
Eeden  had  left  England,  and  before  the  sitting  at 
which  his  name  was  first  mentioned,  five,  and  before 
the  next  dream  two,  seances  had  been  held.  In 
other  words,  it  was  ten  to  one  against  the  right 
dates  being  hit  upon  by  chance. 

Unfortunately,  the  evidential  value  of  the  dream 
cases  is  diminished  by  subsequent  ill-success. 
Though  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  definite  wrong 
statements  were  made,  and  Nelly  showed  on  two 
occasions  knowledge  of  Dr.  van  Eeden’s  state  of 
health,  she  did  not  succeed  in  giving  any  evidential 
details  with  regard  to  dream  conversations,  and  this 
must,  to  some  extent,  diminish  the  value  of  the  cases 
quoted  above. 

Whatever  be  our  conclusion  with  regard  to  the 
part  played  by  the  trance  personalities  in  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  the  dreams,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
experiments  are  interesting.  How  far  the  average 
man  is  likely  to  be  able  to  control  bis  dreams,  as 
Dr.  van  Eeden  does,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  My  own 
dreams  are  too  few  in  number  for  me  to  make  any 
progress  in  that  direction,  and  perhaps  in  most 
cases  the  necessary  patience  will  be  found  to  be 
lacking.  Probably  most  people  would  hardly  be 
content  to  observe  their  dreams,  and  experiment 
for  a  long  period  with  little  or  no  result.  F.  W.  H. 


126  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Myers  has  recorded  that  thrice  only  in  the  course 
of  some  10,000  dreams  was  he  able  to  control  their 
course,  and  his  interest  in  psychical  investigation 
and  patience  in  collecting  material  is  shared  by 
few.  Even  if  some  of  my  readers  find  themselves 
in  a  position  to  influence  their  sleeping  thoughts, 
they  will  perhaps  be  at  a  loss  how  to  experiment, 
for  lack  of  a  reliable  medium  with  a  trance  per¬ 
sonality  prepared  to  experiment.  Although  it  might 
be  worth  while,  in  default  of  anything  better,  to 
utilize  the  services  of  an  ordinary  mortal  whose  life 
is  uncomplicated  by  trances,  a  better  plan  will  be  to 
communicate  with  the  S.P.R.,  who  have  more  op¬ 
portunity  of  finding  a  co-experimenter  of  the  right 
brand,  and  will  doubtless  welcome  the  opportunity  of 
adding  to  their  list  of  sane  people  with  psychical 
interests  and  accomplishments. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  I9O2 

Pictures — Colours — Diagrams 

I  now  turn  to  the  experiments  carried  on  in  the 
rooms  of  the  S.P.R.,  and  mainly  directed  by  myself. 
Up  to  the  end  of  March  1902,  they  were  conducted 
at  19,  Buckingham  Street,  in  the  small  room.  The 
percipient  and  agent  were  about  seven  feet  apart, 
facing  in  the  same  direction  and  separated  by  a 
double  screen  with  cloth  on  one  side  and  wall  (?) 
paper  on  the  other.  There  were  two  cupboards 
with  glass  doors,  one  on  each  side  of  the  fireplace. 
The  agent  and  percipient  were  so  placed  that  neither 
could  see  the  other  reflected  in  either  of  these  doors. 
With  the  exception  of  a  picture  over  the  fireplace, 
equally  incapable  of  disclosing  to  the  percipient  the 
movements  of  the  agent  or  the  object  he  was  con¬ 
templating,  there  was  no  other  reflecting  surface  in 
the  room  to  act  as  a  disturbing  element. 

The  screen  was  close  to  my  writing  table,  in  such 
a  position  that  I  could  watch  both  agent  and  per¬ 
cipient  at  the  same  time  and  hand  to  the  former, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  latter,  the  object,  card, 


127 


128 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


or  diagram  to  be  mentally  transferred.  In  the 
record  everything  is  noted  which  was  said  by  the 
agent  or  any  one  acquainted  with  the  object;  other 
remarks,  by  myself  for  example,  when  I  was  only 
recording  without  a  knowledge  of  what  the  agent 
was  thinking  of  or  looking  at,  are  only  noted  when 
they  bear  on  the  experiment  in  the  way  of  suggest¬ 
ing  a  remark  by  the  percipient. 

The  objects  were  in  every  case  kept  in  closed 
boxes  until  the  experiments  began ;  they  were  then 
withdrawn  from  the  box  in  such  a  position  that  they 
could  not  be  seen  by  the  percipient  and  were  at  once 
handed  to  the  agent.  At  the  close  of  the  experi¬ 
ment  (or  of  a  series)  the  success  or  otherwise  was 
announced,  and  the  objects  replaced  in  the  boxes, 
and  in  the  case  of  diagrams,  colours,  numbers  or 
cards,  thoroughly  shuffled.  In  the  case  of  the  dia¬ 
grams  they  were,  when  not  specially  noted,  prepared 
by  myself  before  the  experiments  began ;  but  in 
order  to  simplify  the  calculation  of  probabilities  it 
may  be  assumed  that  the  percipients  were  acquainted 
with  them. 

The  word  “  chosen  ”  indicates  that  the  object  was 
intentionally  selected,  the  word  “  drawn  ”  that  it 
was  selected  by  lot  or  at  random. 

The  agent  and  percipient  were,  in  all  cases  subse¬ 
quently  dealt  with,  members  or  associates  of  the 
S.P.R.  and,  as  a  rule,  already  known  to  me  person- 


PICTURES 


129 


ally.  In  several  cases  agent  and  percipient  met  for 
the  first  time  at  the  experiments  in  which  they  took 
part. 

Pictures. 

The  first  experiment  of  those  to  be  mentioned 
here,  was  tried  on  January  27,  1902;  present — Miss 
T.  (percipient),  Messrs.  W.  W.  Baggally  (agent), 
J.  JT  Piddington  and  N.  W.  Thomas  (recorder). 
Mr.  Piddington  arrived  first,  bringing  with  him,  as  I 
subsequently  learnt,  a  copy  of  the  Windsor  Maga¬ 
zine,  which  he  placed  in  a  closed  box  behind  the 
screen.  The  recorder  did  not,  except  when  specially 
noted,  see  any  object  before  the  end  of  the  experi¬ 
ment,  and  notes  as  to  the  object  were,  in  each  case, 
not  made  until  after  the  experiment  was  over. 

The  percipient  took  her  seat  with  her  back  to  the 
light  in  a  low  wicker  chair,  and  was  asked  to  look 
in  a  crystal  ball.  After  seeing  a  figure  she  described 
a  luminous  appearance  and  went  on,  “  Now  I  see 
a  sort  of  cloudy  thing  that  might  be  a  landscape, 
very  indistinct.  I  can  see  a  curious  light  in  the 
centre ;  is  that  a  reflection ?  [J.G.P.]  Does  it  come 

through  your  landscape  ?  [Miss  T.]  Yes.  There  is  a 
river  and  mountains,  and  a  group  of  trees  on  the  left. 
[N.  W.  T.]  Your  left?  [Miss  T.]  Yes.  [J.  G.  P.] 
Is  one  part  more  prominent?  [Miss  T.]  No,  it 
might  be  Alps  or  Lucerne  where  I  have  just  been.” 

K 


130  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

The  scene  had  disappeared  when  Miss  T.  looked 
again,  but  immediately  after  she  went  on,  “  Now 
it  has  come  back  to  the  landscape,  snow  peaks,  the 
river  clearer,  rushing  down,  a  group  of  cottages  or 
houses  towards  the  background  on  the  left. 
[J.  G.  P.]  Anything  on  the  bank?  [Miss  T.]  I  was 
thinking  I  saw  some  boats  on  the  bank,  the  one 
nearer  me;  it  might  be  a  lot  of  wood.  [J.  G.  P.] 
Are  you  close  to  it?  [Miss  T.]  There  is  a  lot  of 
foliage  or  something  of  that  sort  in  the  immediate 
foreground ;  the  river  is  in  the  foreground,  but 
further  back.  Those  people — it’s  very  queer — it’s 
an  exact  copy  of  my  brain ;  Eve  seen  the  scene.” 

Up  to  this  point,  Miss  T.  was  not  aware  that  any 
thought  transference  was  being  attempted.  Between 
the  two  descriptions  reported  above,  J.  G.  P.  showed 
N.  W.  T.  the .  cover  of  current  number  of  the 
Windsor  Magazine,  holding  it  a  few  inches  beyond 
the  screen  and  putting  it  flat  on  the  writing-table, 
where  it  remained  for  about  five  seconds.  It  was 
impossible  for  Miss  T.  to  have  seen  it  either  directly 
or  by  reflection.  Her  eyes,  too,  were,  as  J.  G.  P. 
afterwards  informed  me,  as  a  rule,  closed.  J.  G.  P. 
was,  when  he  showed  me  the  cover,  on  the  same 
side  of  the  screen  as  the  agent,  and  was  invisible 
from  where  Miss  T.  sat.  The  word  Windsor  was 
not  mentioned  nor  any  reference  made  to  the  object. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Mr.  Piddington  had,  before 


[Plate  II. 


WINDSOR  CASTLE. 


PICTURES 


I3I 

the  point  at  which  the  notes  above  quoted  begins, 
handed  Mr.  Baggally  the  Windsor  Magazine ;  un¬ 
known  to  the  recorder,  Mr.  Baggally,  who  was 
behind  the  screen,  had  been  steadily  gazing  at  the 
picture  on  the  cover,  here  reproduced  for  compari¬ 
son  (PI.  II).  It  will  hardly  be  denied  that  the  re¬ 
semblance  was  striking;  but  this  was  not  all. 

At  3.47,  seventeen  minutes  after  the  experiment 
began,  Miss  T.  took  pencil  and  paper  to  try  auto¬ 
matic  writing.  The  trials  were  made  without  suc¬ 
cess,  and  one  colour  trial.  At  about  4  o’clock  a 
diagram  was  tried,  but  the  drawing  was  again  with¬ 
out  resemblance  to  the  object.  Later  Miss  T.  closed 
her  eyes  to  try  to  get  visual  impressions,  and  then 
remarked  that  she  saw  a  lot  of  pictures,  mentioning 
three — a  field  of  wheat,  a  garden,  and  Windsor 
Castle,  the  latter  being  especially  clear,  with  the 
river  below. 

Two  other  experiments  were  then  tried  and  re¬ 
sulted  in  failures. 

A  comparison  of  the  description  with  the  illus¬ 
tration  shows  how  close  the  resemblance  was.  It  is, 
of  course,  impossible  to  estimate  the  probabilities  in 
a  case  of  this  sort,  hut  the  experiment  seemed 
worth  recording  here  in  detail  to  show  the  sort  of 
trial  which  good  crystal  gazers  may  with  advantage 
make. 

Several  further  series  of  experiments  were  tried 


132  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

with  Miss  T.  in  April  and  May,  1902,  with  varying 
success.  The  trials  took  place  in  the  rooms  of  the 
Society,  at  20,  Hanover  Square,  W. ;  the  agent  and 
percipient  were  separated  by  a  double  cloth  screen, 
six  feet  high,  and  the  objects  were  kept  in  an 
American  roll-top  desk,  and  in  closed  boxes  until 
the  percipient  was  seated,  and  in  such  a  position  as 
not  to  be  able  to  see  what  object  was  selected. 

Shorthand  notes  of  descriptions  by  the  percipient 
were  taken  by  the  Society’s  shorthand  writer,  Miss 
Keates,  and  a  record  of  the  conditions  of  the  ex¬ 
periment  and  of  the  objects  was  kept  by  myself  or, 
in  my  absence,  by  another  recorder. 

On  April  23,  eleven  trials  were  made,  four  with 
pictures  and  seven  with  diagrams.  The  first 
picture  selected  was  from  Warne’s  Easy  A.B.C. 
Painting  Book  and  was  the  right-hand  half  of  the 
coloured  picture  to  O;  this  represented  a  long¬ 
eared  owl  sitting  on  the  branch  of  a  tree  growing 
from  a  trunk  on  the  right  of  it,  which  was  covered 
with  ivy ;  in  the  background,  a  mass  of  high-trees, 
and  behind  them  the  moon  represented  as  pure  white 
without  spots  and  partly  concealed  by  them  so  as 
to  be  only  semi-circular,  in  such  a  position  as  to 
form  a  halo  round  the  owl’s  head.  Below  the  ivy 
in  the  foreground  and  between  it  and  the  margin  of 
the  page,  was  white  uncoloured  paper  of  a  breadth 
of  more  than  half  an  inch.  One  has  the  impression 


PICTURES 


133 


that  the  owl  is  high  in  the  air.  This  picture  was 
from  a  book  bought  some  weeks  previously,  used  for 
the  experiment  and  then  kept  in  the  drawer  of  my 
secretaire  until  the  experiment  on  the  present  occa¬ 
sion.  It  was  taken  from  my  secretaire  by  myself 
and  handed  to  the  agent,  Mr.  W.  W.  Baggally,  who 
was  already  seated  behind  the  screen.  Miss  Keates, 
who  took  the  shorthand  notes  of  all  that  was  said, 
whether  by  Miss  T.  or  any  one  else,  and  Mr.  G. 
Musgrove,  who  was  also  present,  remained  in  ignor¬ 
ance  of  what  had  been  selected. 

Miss  T.  after  seating  herself  facing  Miss  Keates, 
but,  with  her  back  to  the  light,  to  myself  and  to  the 
agent,  who  was  behind  the  screen,  took  the  crystal 
and  said,  after  a  few  minutes :  “Well,  it  is  very  indis¬ 
tinct,  but  what  it  seems  to  me  is  a  forest,  very  high 
trees  in  the  foreground,  and  then  there  is  a  group  of 

animals  in  it  and  there  is  a  large - .  There  is  a 

brilliant  light  in  the  centre  of  the  picture,  but  T 
cannot  make  out  what  it  is.  It  seems  like  the  sun. 
[Rec.1]  What  shape  is  it?  [Miss  T.]  The  shape  of 
the  Aurora  Borealis.  [Rec.]  And  is  it  uniformly 
white  or  what  colour?  [Miss  T.]  It  is  a  white 
dazzling  light,  the  centre  is  dark.  It  is  so  brilliant, 
it  makes  my  eyes  tired.  It  is  quite  in  the  back¬ 
ground.  [Rec.]  What  is  in  the  foreground,  then? 
[Miss  T.]  Why,  it’s  like  the  sea,  like  a  forest,  trees 


’  N.  W.  Thomas. 


134  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

on  one  side  and  water  in  the  front.  [Ree.]  Is  there 
anything  else  you  can  see  in  the  picture?  [Miss  T.] 
I  have  described  everything  I  can  see ;  there  is  a 
great  deal  more,  it  is  very  indistinct.  Have  you  got 
a  magnifying  glass?  (One  brought.)  Men,  a 
group  of  men  passing  to  one  side  of  the  picture.  I 
rather  think  I  must  have  seen  it  in  South  Africa. 
Now  it  is  fading.” 

It  will  be  seen  that,  with  the  exception  of  the 
animals  at  the  beginning  and  the  men  at  the  end,  the 
description  is  singularly  accurate.  Several  points 
might  have  been  further  elucidated,  but  the  per¬ 
cipient  was  in  a  dreamy  condition  and  had  to  be 
questioned  before  she  said  anything.  The  picture 
faded  before  questions  could  be  asked  as  to  which 
side  the  trees  were  on,  and  what  the  dark  mass  in  the 
centre  of  the  light  was.  The  following  points  were 
correctly  described :  the  moon,  with  a  dark  object  in 
the  centre,  in  the  background,  not  a  complete  circle 
but  the  shape  of  the  Aurora  (i.e.  semicircular)  ;  the 
trees  on  one  side  in  the  foreground;  possibly  the 
white  paper  appears  as  water. 

The  next  two  pictures  were :  L  and  D,  both  fail¬ 
ures.  After  a  success  with  a  diagram,  described  be¬ 
low,  there  was  another  unsuccessful  picture,  R,  in 
the  same  book. 

On  April  25,  four  experiments  in  crystal  gazing 
were  tried  by  Mrs.  M.  with  Miss  P.  as  agent.  The 


PICTURES 


135 


'first  object  was  a  picture  of  a  parrot  on  a  bar  with  a 
seed  box  at  each  end.  The  only  impression  was 
that  of  “  a  sort  of  long  stalk  with  a  bulb  on  the 
end  of  it.”  This  was  correct  as  far  as  it  went, 
but  hardly  entitles  us  to  count  the  trial  as  even 
partially  successful.  The  -next  two  trials  resulted 
in  the  percipient  seeing  diagrams  instead  of  pictures, 
and  the  last,  though  some  resemblance  could  be 
traced,  was  equally  unsuccessful. 

On  April  29,  Miss  T.  was  again  the  percipient. 
Five  trials  were  made  with  pictures.  The  first 
subject  was  the  third  coloured  picture  in  Warne’s 
Merry  Moments  Painting  Book,  representing  a 
river  or  narrow  lake  in  the  centre  running  at  the 
foot  of  some  hills  in  the  right  background.  In  the 
left  foreground  a  child  fishing,  just  behind  her  some 
bushes,  no  background. 

The  book  was  purchased  by  myself  on  the  day  in 
question,  and  I  reached  the  rooms  simultaneously 
with  Miss  T.  It  was,  however,  put  behind  the  screen 
unopened.  Besides  the  agent,  Mr.  Baggally,  Mr. 
Piddington  saw  the  picture  selected  by  myself. 
The  conditions  were  as  described  before. 

Miss  T.  said,  “  I  get  the  impression  of  a  figure;  it 
is  a  figure.  I  cannot  see  whether  it  is  a  man  or 
woman,  but  it  is  dressed  in  some  sort  of  flowing 
drapery  in  the  distance.  It  seems  as  if  it  were 
walking  in  front  of  a  terrace ;  in  the  distance,  there 


136  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


is  a  slight  suggestion  of  a  man.  It  is  a  very - . 

There  seems  something  walking  into  a  room,  rather 
into  the  interior  of  a  palace.  That  melts  away. 
There  is  a  broad  sheet  of  water,  and  there  is  a  sky 
in  the  distance,  and  it  is  very  bright  on  the  horizon. 
That  is  all  I  see.  [Rec.]  Anything  on  the  sheet  of 
water?  [Miss  T.]  Well  there  is  something  that  looks 
vaguely  like  a  ship,  but  that  might  he  a  suggestion 
by  the  water.  It  looks  like  a  ship.  Have  you  got 
a  magnifying  glass?  I  see  something  on  the  ship. 
The  ship  seems  approaching  nearer,  and  as  it  ap¬ 
proaches  you  can  see  something  moving  on  it.  I 
don’t  know  what  it  is.  It  is  melting  away.” 

The  resemblance  here  cannot  be  called  more  than 
slight.  The  sheet  of  water,  however,  is  correct, 
and  the  figure  though  displaced  to  the  background 
is  fairly  described. 

The  second,  third,  and  fourth  experiments  were 
failures. 

Mrs.  Thompson  arrived  during  the  experiment 
and  went  into  the  library,  where  she  was  joined  by 
Mr.  Piddington.  It  was  arranged  that  she  should 
act  as  agent.  The  object,  the  head  on  an  Edward 
VII  half-sovereign,  was  selected  by  J.  G.  Pidding¬ 
ton.  N.  W.  Thomas,  controlling  the  whole  experi¬ 
ment,  W.  W.  Baggally,  and  Miss  Iveates  taking 
notes  of  what  Miss  T.  said,  remained  in  ignorance 
of  it  until  the  experiment  was  over. 


PICTURES 


137 


Miss  T.  said :  “  I  can’t  get  a  clear  impression,  I 
get  the  impression  of  a  figure.  It  is  very,  very  vague, 
much  more  vague  than  the  others.  It  is  so  vague  I 
can  hardly  tell  whether  it  is  a  figure  or  an  animal. 
That  is  all  I  get.  There  is  one  thing  in  the  whole 
picture.”  The  picture  developed  into  three  figures 
subsequently,  but  this  may  be  regarded  as  a  normal 
occurrence  with  Miss  T.,  whose  crystal  visions  were 
almost  invariably  living  pictures.  There  is  possibly 
some  connexion  between  the  object  and  the  im¬ 
pression,  but  the  latter  was  too  vague  for  any  stress 
to  be  laid  on  it. 

On  May  6,  three  experiments  were  tried,  all  fail¬ 
ures,  with  agent  and  percipient  in  different  rooms. 
Two  with  another  percipient  also  failed. 

On  May  13,  four  experiments  were  tried  under  the 
same  conditions.  I11  the  first  the  object  was  a  pic¬ 
ture  of  an  old  man  with  a  load  of  faggots,  shaking 
hands  with  a  young  girl.  Miss  T.  saw  in  the  crystal 
a  figure  which  might  have  been  a  bear  on  its  hind 
legs.  The  second  was  a  failure.  The  third  was  a 
picture  of  a  small  building  with  a  circular  tower 
at  one  end,  that  had  a  curious  peaked  roof  like  an 
extinguisher;  on  the  right  was  another  building, 
and  the  immediate  foreground  was  white.  Miss  T. 
said,  “  This  looks  like  a  building  on  a  hill,  and  a  lake 
in  front,  whether  it  is  a  church  I  cannot  see.  It 
is  a  mass  of  buildings,  very  like  a  scene  in  Switzer- 


138  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

land.”  The  resemblance  was  not  close,  bnt  it  was 
not  altogether  absent. 

In  the  fourth  experiment,  Miss  T.  saw  one  tall 
object  going  up  to  a  sharp  point.  The  object 
actually  was  Snowdon  from  Portmadoc,  but  the 
description  was  perhaps  a  continuation  of  that  in 
the  previous  experiment,  a  postponed  impression  of 
the  tower. 

Several  short  series  of  experiments  with  pictures 
were  tried  at  Buckingham  Street,  in  February  and 
March,  with  various  percipients.  Of  four  trials  on 
February  28,  the  only  one  worthy  of  note  was  that 
with  the  picture  of  the  owl  described  above  (p.  132). 
The  percipient,  Miss  P.,  saw  in  the  crystal  “  a 
figure  of  some  sort ;  rather  like  a  woman,  oldish, 
something  on  her  head,  a  sort  of  cap.  Like  a 
caricature.”  This  can  perhaps  hardly  be  regarded 
as  a  success,  hut,  on  the  other  hand,  the  owl  as  a 
caricature  of  an  old  woman  is  not  a  far-fetched  idea, 
and  the  cap  is  supplied  by  the  moon  surrounding 
the  head  of  the  bird. 

The  same  picture  was  used  a  week  later  with  an¬ 
other  percipient,  Mrs.  C.,  who,  between  two  failures, 
described  “  a  man’s  head  on  a  pillow,  about  50  or 
60,  with  a  beard.”  The  resemblance  is  at  best  very 
remote,  but  possibly  the  moon  suggested  the  pillow. 

On  the  same  day  a  picture  series  was  tried,  with 
Mrs.  Verrall  and  Miss  P.as  agents.  The  only  approx- 


COLOURS 


139 


imation  to  a  success  in  the  six  trials  with  pictures 
was  when  Miss  P.  mentioned  the  letter  B  in  con- 

g 

nexion  with  a  picture  marked,  unknown  to  her,  — . 

4i 

Experience  shows  that  estimates  of  probabilities 
differ  very  widely  in  cases  where  exact  statistical 
methods  are  not  available.  I  therefore  refrain  from 
summing  up  the  net  results  of  such  experiments, 
both  here  and  later.  It  is  perhaps  worthy  of  note 
that  some  success  was  attained  with  the  owl  picture 
on  each  occasion  it  was  used. 

Colours 

At  various  times  a  number  of  trials  with  colours 
were  made.  These  experiments  are  much  com¬ 
plicated  by  the  difficulty  which  most  percipients 
have  in  naming  the  colours  they  see.  There  are, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  at  least  360  names  of  colours  in 
Engl  ish,  probably  more  if  names  derived  from 
flowers  and  other  natural  objects  are  included.  In 
some  of  the  experiments  a  numbered  sheet  of 
colours  corresponding  to  those  used  by  the  agent  was 
hung  before  the  percipient ;  and  this  was  found 
to  work  well  in  some  cases.  The  matter  is  further 
complicated  by  possible  influence  of  secondary 
colours  and  after  images,  though  such  influence 
was  not  traced  in  any  individual  case.  Another 
source  of  difficulty  is  that  the  agent  did  not  always 


140  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


see  the  colours  in  a  bright  light.  The  result  of  this 
was  to  deaden  them ;  on  one  occasion,  for  example, 
bronze  was  described  by  the  percipient  as  sepia 
brown.  I  was  preparing  to  mark  this  down  a  failure, 
but  the  agent  said  that  in  the  dull  light  the  bronze 
was  almost  exactly  the  colour  named  by  the  percipi¬ 
ent.  Under,  these  circumstances  the  trial  was 
counted  as  a  success. 

Twenty-one  trials  were  made  on  various  occasions 
with  cards  of  the  following  colours — red,  blue, 
bronze,  yellow,  green,  black  cross.  Of  these  trials 
a  brightish  red  was  described  as  pink  by  one 
percipient ;  another  percipient  saw  pink,  then  some¬ 
thing  dark,  and  yellow  (this  was  counted  a  failure)  ; 
canary  yellow  was  given  as  yellow ;  mauve,  as  blue, 
red  as  pink,  and  brown  as  brown;  on  a  subsequent 
occasion  the  same  percipient  failed  four  successive 
times. 

On  May  13,  Miss  T.  made  four  trials,  the  agents 
and  percipient  being  in  different  rooms.  Red  was 
again  described  as  pink ;  a  rainbow  effect  with  pre¬ 
vailing  colour  violet  was  seen  when  blue  would  have 
been  correct ;  a  bright  yellow  dog  was  seen  when 
one  agent  had  yellow,  the  other  bronze;  the  fourth 
trial  was  a  failure. 

If  we  count  the  red  =  pink  as  a  success,  and  it 
should  be  noted  that  all  the  percipients  agreed  in  get¬ 
ting  the  impression  of  pink  when  the  agent  was  look- 


COLOURS 


141 


ing  at  this  colour,  with  which  there  were  no  failures, 
other  than  such  misdescription  as  is  involved  in  call¬ 
ing  it  pink,  we  have  6  complete  successes,  and  two 
partial  successes  out  of  21  trials,  the  rainbow  effect 
being  counted  a  failure.  The  expectation  was  y/2. 

On  the  same  day  a  series  of  trials  took  place  in  a 
studio,  with  four  percipients.  The  only  one  of  these 
to  get  results  above  expectation  was  Miss  P.,  who 
was  also  markedly  successful  in  the  diagram  trials 
to  be  described  later.  With  myself  as  agent  she 
named  a  card  of  the  next  shade  to  the  one  required, 
5  times  out  of  20  trials,  and  a  card  of  the  same 
colour,  but  more  remote  shade,  5  times  more,  the 
total  number  of  colours  being  20,  arranged  in  4 
rows,  and  the  expectation  in  each  case,  therefore, 
3  and  2U>.  Twenty  trials  with  other  agents  were, 
on  the  whole,  failures. 

The  conditions  were  here  quite  satisfactory,  as 
the  agent  was  seated  in  a  gallery,  and  though  his 
voice  was  audible  to  the  percipients,  he  was  quite 
invisible.  A  sheet  of  colours,  numbered  to  corre¬ 
spond  with  those  used  by  the  agent,  who  drew 
coloured  cards  at  random,  served  to  identify  the 
percipient’s  impressions.  The  colours  in  this  series 
were  not  the  same  as  those  previously  described. 
They  included  several  shades  of  red,  blue,  yellow, 
green,  brown,  grey,  etc. 


142  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 
Diagrams  and  Nuaibers 

As  in  the  case  of  pictures,  a  statistical  discussion 
of  the  success  or  failure  of  trials  with  diagrams  is, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  impossible.1  In  the  first 
place,  no  exhaustive  enumeration  of  all  possible 
diagrams  can  be  made ;  we  have  not  therefore  any 
basis  on  which  to  calculate  the  number  from 
which  a  selection  might  be  taken  to  be  made.  In 
the  second  place,  it  frequently  happens  that  the 
reproduction  contains  a  sufficient  number  of  the 
elements  of  the  original  diagram  to  enable  us  to 
see  a  resemblance,  even  when  the  trial  is  not  com¬ 
pletely  successful.  But  pari  passu  with  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  alien  elements,  or  the  elimination  of 
the  original  elements,  arises  the  difficulty  of  deter¬ 
mining  how  far,  if  at  all,  the  trial  has  been  success¬ 
ful,  and  how  far  the  presence  of  a  few  points  of  re¬ 
semblance  is  due  to  coincidence;  for  it  must  be 
noted  that  the  number  of  independent  elements  is 
very  few,  and  the  complexity  of  a  thought  trans¬ 
ference  diagram  is  limited,  far  more  than  is  the 
case  with  a  picture  of  which  many  details  are 
known  and  need  not  be  specially  noted  by  the 
agent,  such  as  for  example,  the  lines  and  shading 

1  If  we  assume  that  all  the  diagrams  were  known  to  the 
percipient,  and  deal  only  with  complete  successes,  statisti¬ 
cal  methods  are  available ;  but  this  excludes  much  of  the 
evidence. 


DIAGRAMS 


143 


that  go  to  suggest  water  in  motion,  by  the  power 
of  the  agent  to  grasp  it  in  its  entirety  and  by  the 
power  of  the  percipient  to  reproduce  it  correctly, 
almost,  if  not  entirely,  from  memory. 

Only  by  facsimiles  of  the  originals  and  reproduc¬ 
tions  is  it  possible  to  put  the  evidence  forward  in 
such  a  manner  that  every  one  can  judge  for  himself 
and  add  to  or  deduct  from  the  estimate  of  the 
writer. 

The  diagrams  used  in  these  experiments  were, 
firstly,  a  series  of  diagrams  drawn  by  myself,  ten 
in  number,  on  March  7,  together  with  a  single 
printed  diagram,  and  seventy-five  in  number,  on 
subsequent  occasions;  and  secondly,  diagrams 
drawn  (not  in  the  same  room,  in  order  to  avoid 
subconscious  perception  of  the  character  of  the 
drawing)  by  the  agent.  This  second  class  was  of 
course  liable  to  the  objection  that,  apart  from  a 
diagram-habit,  a  series  of  similar  diagrams  might 
be  drawn  by  both  agent  and  percipient  owing 
to  a  train  of  ideas  being  suggested  by  external 
circumstances.  At  the  same  time  it  should  be 
remembered,  in  estimating  the  value  of  such 
experiments,  that  possibility  is  not  probability,  far 
less  certainty.  The  drawings  made  by  the  agents 
were  shut  up  in  a  large  diary,  before  they  entered 
the  room,  and  I  satisfied  myself  in  each  case  that 
the  diagram  remained  in  the  book  until  the  agent 


144 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


was  seated  behind  the  screen.  The  other  diagrams, 

B  B  .  .  , 

termed  — ,  —  ,  etc.,  were  m  a  box  until  the  com- 

I  2 

mencement  of  the  experiments  and  were,  except  in 
the  fifth  experiment,  drawn  from  the  box  at  ran¬ 
dom.  From  the  third  trial  onwards  on  March  7 
the  success  and  failure  was  known  to  the  percipient 
as  well  as  the  agent,  and  the  diagram  was  shown 
ill  each  case  as  soon  as  the  individual  experiment 
was  ended.  The  percipient  usually  closed  her  eyes 
until  she  got  an  impression,  and  then  reproduced 
it  in  pencil  on  numbered  sheets  of  paper.  Each  ex¬ 
periment  took  from  a  minute  and  a  half  for  the 
first  set  to  two  minutes  for  ten  others,  including  the 
drawing  of  the  diagrams. 

Turning  to  the  individual  trials  on  March  7,  at 
19,  Buckingham  Street,  with  Mrs.  Verrall  as  per¬ 
cipient,  Miss  P.  as  agent  and  N.  W.  Thomas  as 
recorder,  we  find  a  slight  resemblance  in  the  first, 
and  a  stronger  resemblance  in  the  fourth  experi¬ 
ment  ;  the  sixth  was  completely  right ;  in  the  third 
only  one  of  the  tails  has  got  into  the  picture,  and 
that  separated  from  the  main  portion ;  the 
agent  remarked  afterwards  she  felt  as  if  she  must 
draw  a  circle  round  the  diagram ;  in  the  fifth  ex- 

jg 

periment  I  accidentally  exposed  diagram  —  in  sight 
of  the  percipient,  and  she  said,  “  Give  me  that 


[Plate  III. 

B 


£> 


,  1 

t 1 

TRIALS  ON  MARCH  7TH. 

A.  MRS.  verrall's  DRAWINGS. 

B.  DIAGRAMS  USED  BY  AGENT. 

[ Reduced  to  one-half .] 


lo  face  p.  144. 


B  4 


TRIALS  ON  MARCH  7TH. 

L>  2.  1.  a,  b.  miss  p/s  drawings.  2.  diagrams  used  by  agents. 
B  4.  1.  a,  b.  do  2.  diagram  used  by  agent. 

[Same  size  as  original.] 


To  face  p.  145. 


DIAGRAMS 


M5 


one  ” ;  I  gave  her,  however,  —  ;  the  diagram 1 

4 

g 

reproduced  was,  however,  —  ,  and  it  can  hardly  be 

regarded  as  accidental  that  the  agent  had  seen 
it.  The  second  experiment  is  virtually  a  failure, 
save  that  the  reproduction  includes  only  straight 
lines  and  is  roughly  rectangular,  like  the  diagram. 

Miss  P.  now  took  Mrs.  Verrall’s  place  and  the 
diagrams  were  drawn  by  the  agents  as  before  de¬ 
scribed.  The  first  experiment  was  a  failure.  In 

g 

the  second  2  a  portion  of  the  diagram  —  was  given 

correctly;  Mrs.  Verrall  had  numbered  it,  before 
entering  the  room,  and  enclosed  the  number  in  a 
circle ;  she  said  subsequently  she  felt  sure  this 
would  be  a  bother;  possibly  it  may  account  for  the 
small  circle  near  the  cross  of  the  diagonal.  Un¬ 
known  to  the  percipient,  I  took  from  the  box 

diagram  —  and  tried  a  duplex  experiment ;  Miss  P. 

remarked,  “  I  can  see  two  things,”  and  was  told 
to  draw  them  both.  The  third  trial  resulted  in 
a  reproduction  that  seems  obviously  an  after  image 

g 

1  For  —  ,  see  PI.  VII.  The  series  is  reproduced  on  PI.  III. 

6 

2  The  figures  marked  a  and  b  are  Miss  P.’s  reproductions ; 

B 

the  figure  marked  2  is  Mrs.  Verrall’s  and  the  last  one  is 

L 


146  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

from  i  and  2.  The  fourth  experiment  had  a  curious 
issue ;  instead  of  taking  a  second  diagram,  I  looked, 
without  telling  the  percipient,  at  Mrs.  VerraH’s 
diagram,  and  then  turned  to  get  a  diary  as  a  book- 
rest  for  Mrs.  Verrall;  the  first  reproduction  con¬ 
tained  the  diagram  in  duplicate,  the  reversal  of 
one  of  the  images,  as  seen  by  the  percipient  suggests 
that  the  phenomenon  of  reversal  depends  on  some 
peculiarity  in  the  agent ;  it  is  not  impossible  that 
the  second  refers  to  the  diary,  but  no  stress  can  be 
laid  on  this.  The  fifth  experiment  was  as  good  as 
a  failure.  For  trials  2  and  4  see  PI.  IV. 

The  next  set  of  four  trials  with  Miss  P.  as  agent 
were  virtually  all  failures.  A  sickle  shaped 
figure  in  the  first  was  a  reproduction  of  a  portion  of 
the  diagram,  and  in  the  third  experiment  the  idea 
present  in  my  mind  of  a  long-tailed  cat  seated 
and  seen  from  behind  may  have  influenced  the 
result  (a  mushroom  was  drawn),  but  the  resem¬ 
blance  is,  in  any  case,  very  slight. 

On  March  24  a  further  series  of  50  with  the  same 
ladies  as  agent  and  percipient  was  tried.  The 
diagrams,  75  in  number,  were  made  up  of  the  ten 
previously  used  and  65  additional  ones  drawn  by 
N.  W.  Thomas  in  the  interval.  Except  in  the 
trials  from  31  to  50,  the  recorder  saw  the  diagram 
which  he  handed  to  the  agent,  after  drawing  it  at 
random  from  the  box.  Miss  P.  was  the  first  per- 


one-half  of  original .] 


[Reduced  to  two-thirds  of  original .] 


TRIALS  ON  MARCH  24TH. 

A.  MISS  P.  S  DRAWINGS.  B.  DIAGRAMS  USED  BY  AGENT. 


DIAGRAMS 


i47 


eipient.  The  first  two  reproductions  were  failures; 
the  third  was  nearly  right,  and  the  fourth  merely 
an  improvement  on  the  third  and  quite  unconnected 
with  the  actual  diagram.  The  fifth  was  wrong; 
the  sixth,  of  which  Mrs.  VerralFs  impression  was 
“  A  V  with  a  tail  and  something  looking  at  it,”  was 
partly  right ;  the  seventh  and  eighth  were  failures ; 
the  ninth  resulted  in  a  preliminary  failure — no 
impression ;  a  duplex  trial  was  then  made  and  a 
double  impression  resulted,  one  of  which  resembled 
one  of  the  diagrams ;  in  the  tenth  a  duplex  trial 
was  again  made  and  resulted  in  a  single  impression, 
a  part  of  which  bore  a  slight  resemblance  to  the 
diagram.  For  this  series  see  PI.  V.1 

In  one  series  of  10  both  Miss  P.  and  Mrs.  Verrall 
acted  as  percipients,  and  N.  W.  Thomas  as  agent. 
I11  the  first  of  the  series  both  were,  independently, 
partly  right,  but  Miss  P.  alone  met  with  further 
success.  On  the  whole  the  60  trials,  six  of  which 
were  duplex,  resulted  in  a  much  lower  percentage 
of  success  than  the  former  series,  the  results  being : 
completely  right,  o;  half  right  or  more,  6;  partly 
right,  1 1 ;  some  resemblance,  8 ;  and  complete 

1  This  first  series  is  reproduced  as  a  specimen  taken  at 
random  to  show  the  general  character  of  the  impressions,  and 
the  approximation  between  diagram  and  impression  and  to 
show  also  that  slight  resemblances  are  not  unduly  emphasized. 
3  and  6  were  counted  a  single  success  between  them,  9  as 
partly  R  and  10  as  some  resemblance. 


148  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


failures,  41.  In  two  cases  postponed  successes  were 
obtained,  the  diagram  not  having  been  seen  by  the 
percipient  in  the  meantime  nor  mentioned. 

The  net  result  of  the  two  series  was:  Right,  4; 
half  right  or  more,  8;  partly  right,  13;  some  re¬ 
semblance,  9;  wrong,  50  out  of  84  trials,  including 
8  duplex  experiments,  of  which  one  was  completely 
successful. 

At  the  close  of  the  trials  an  experiment  on  novel 
lines  was  made.  Both  Miss  P.  and  Mrs.  Verrall 
are  good  visual izers  and  reproduce  their  visualiza¬ 
tions  easily.  Laying  a  watch  with  a  second  hand 
upon  my  table,  I  asked  them  to  draw  their  mental 
pictures  for  the  next  five  minutes,  which  I  would 
mark  by  calling  out  at  the  close  of  each.  In  the 
fifth  minute,  without  saying  anything  to  either, 
I  took  two  diagrams  with  the  intention  of  influenc¬ 
ing  them.  Mrs.  Verrall  drew  in  succession  (1) 
a  nonsense  word  (?  English),  (2)  three  Greek 
words,  (3)  a  circle  and  an  H  with  a  labyrinthine 
figure  between,  (4)  two  Latin  words,  and  (5)  a 
house. 

Miss  P.’s  drawings  are  reproduced  on  PI.  VI. 

Although  the  resemblance  may  not  be  very 
close  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  a  resemblance 
is  present,  to  the  second  of  the  above  figures 
especially.  It  should  be  noted  that  nothing  re¬ 
sembling  them  had  been  drawn  previously,  the 


[Plate  VI. 

2 


<X  7 

(Tfrr- 


t  .c=^ 


6 


TRIAL  ON  MARCH  24TH. 
Figs.  1  — 5.  MISS  P/S  DRAWINGS. 
B.  1,  2.  DIAGRAMS  USED  BY  AGENT, 
t Reduced  to  one-half.] 


To  face  p.  148. 


'N 


/ 


\ 


B. 

0 


[Plate  VII. 


B. 

34 


TRIAL  ON  APRIL  2 3RD. 

B  B 

— -  —  DIAGRAMS  USED  BY  AGENT. 

6  34' 

MISS  T.’s  AUTOMATIC  DRAWING. 
[. Extreme  width  of  original  drawing  4§  in.] 


To  face  p.  149. 


DIAGRAMS 


149 

crescents  and  semicircles  being  quite  different  from 
the  last  of  the  above  figures. 

At  20,  Hanover  Square,  a  series  of  trials  with 
diagrams  were  made  on  the  same  days  as  the 
experiments  already  described,  the  percipients 
being  Miss  T.,  Miss  P.  and  Mrs.  M.  The  two  latter 
drew  their  impressions  on  numbered  slips  of  paper, 
as  already  described,  but  Miss  T.’s  reproductions 
were  mainly  automatic.  The  main  difficulty  with 
automatic  drawings  was  found  to  be  that  the 
motor  impulse  was  not  exhausted,  when  a  drawing 
was  completed,  but  that  the  hand  continued  to 
make  unnecessary  movements  which  completely 
obscured  the  original  reproduction.  Partly  as  a 
result  of  this  only  one  conspicuous  success  was 
chronicled. 

On  April  23,  1903,  Mr.  W.  W.  Baggally  was 
agent,  Miss  Iveates,  shorthand  note-taker,  and  N.  W. 
Thomas,  recorder  and  director  of  the  experiments 
for  the  first  two  trials,  both  of  which  were,  unknown 
to  the  percipient  and  the  original  agent,  duplex ; 
the  second  of  these  resulted  in  a  drawing  here 
reproduced  with  facsimiles  of  the  original  PI.  VII. 
The  resemblance  of  the  upper  portion  to  the  three 
triangles  may  be  called  in  question,  but  the  iden¬ 
tity  of  the  scroll  with  the  diagram  in  the  hands  of 
the  agent  (N.  W.  Thomas)  is  unmistakable.  Two 
later  trials  resulted  in  failures. 


150  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

On  May  6  three  further  duplex  trials  were  made, 
Miss  T.  being  percipient  in  one  room  and  W.  W. 
Baggally  and  G.  Musgrove,  agents,  in  another. 
The  first  objects  were  a  crescent  and  a  star.  Miss 
T.  began  by  drawing  three  or  four  crescents,  and 
then  as  usual  tailed  off  into  meaningless  scrawls. 
In  the  next  experiments,  O  and  S,  capital  letters, 
were  the  objects.  Miss  T.  drew  a  line  some  two 
inches  long,  ending  in  a  circle  three  quarters  com¬ 
plete,  then  a  figure  shaped  like  a  9;  these  may 
have  been  attempts  to  give  the  O.  The  next  two 
B1  B 

diagrams  were  —  and—.  Miss  T.  between  two 
&  7  8 

straight  lines'  drew  first  a  square,  then  a  smaller 
irregular  closed  figure,  then  a  very  distinct  8.  Each 
experiment  seems,  therefore,  to  have  been  partially 
successful,  and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  suc¬ 
cesses,  such  as  they  were,  were  with  the  diagrams 
in  the  hands  of  one  percipient,  Mr.  Baggally,  with 
whom  she  was  trying  another  series  of  long  dis¬ 
tance  experiments. 

On  May  13,  four  similar  single  experiments 
resulted  in  failure,  Miss  T.’s  pencil  tracing  nothing 
intelligible. 

Four  trials  with  numbers  were  then  made,  N.  W. 
Thomas  and  W.  W.  Baggally,  in  one  room,  being 


1  A  square 


DIAGRAMS 


151 

co-agents  with  numbers  20  and  18  for  the  first  ex¬ 
periment.  Miss  T.  drew  an  O  preceded  by  a  1  (  ?) ; 
in  the  next,  48  and  21  being  the  numbers,  19  was 
drawn;  in  the  next,  19  being  the  number,  84  was 
drawn,  and  in  the  last  nothing  intelligible.  In  the 
first  two  trials  it  was  6  to  4  against  any  rough  figure 
being  the  same  as  one  of  those  in  the  agent’s  hands 
and  4  to  3  on  one  of  the  two  figures  being  the  same. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  first  trial  the  two  figures 
wrere  each  the  same  as  one  in  the  hands  of  each 
agent.  In  the  second  one  figure  was  right ;  in  other 
words  chance  alone  explains  the  two  combined.  In 
the  third  the  figures  of  the  second  experiment  were 
given  in  reversed  order,  possibly  a  postponed  effect 
from  the  previous  trial.1 

On  April  25  twenty  trials,  four  of  them  duplex, 
were  made  with  Miss  P.  as  percipient.  Of  the 
first  series  of  ten,  two  were  partly  right  and  one  of 
these  appeared  again,  as  a  postponed  effect,  in  the 
following  experiment.  Of  the  next  ten  the  first 
three  were  with  capital  letters ;  there  was  one 
complete  success ;  in  the  first  trial  in  taking  out  the 
letter  D,  N.  W.  Thomas  accidentally  saw  the  letter 
B,  and  this  was  reproduced  by  the  percipient,  mak¬ 
ing  what  was  really  a  success  in  one  element  of  a 
duplex  trial. 

1  No  results  were  communicated  till  the  end  of  a  series 
where  the  agent  and  percipient  were  in  different  rooms. 


152 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Of  the  seven  diagrams  two  were  partly  right 
and  in  one  case  there  was  another  unintended 
success  of  a  kind.  The  object  was  O;  this  reap¬ 
peared  as  O  and  inside  it  73 ;  the  number  of  the 
B 

diagram  was  —  ,  and  it  can  hardly  be  a  mere  co¬ 
incidence  that  the  number  written  down  was 
73- 

On  May  1,  eleven  trials  were  made  with  Miss 
P.  as  percipient,  N.  W.  Thomas  agent,  and  J.  G. 
Piddington  recorder.  Three  of  these  were  half 
right  or  better,  and  one  of  these  reappeared  as  a 
postponed  effect.  In  two  further  cases  there  was 
some  resemblance.  In  the  fifth  -experiment  the 
object  of  which  was  6  the  agent  tried  glimpsing  it 
by  blinking  his  eyes  rapidly  (this  was  recorded 
before  the  result  of  the  experiment  was  known)  and 
the  percipient  drew  a  series  of  C,  a  result  that  can 
hardly  be  due  to  chance.  In  twenty  further  trials 
with  two  percipients  little  success  was  attained, 
there  being  a  resemblance  traceable  in  five  cases 
only. 

The  net  result  of  the  160  trials  recorded  here  is 
as  follows:  right,  5;  half  right  or  more,  9;  partly 
right,  16;  and  some  resemblance,  16.  The  com¬ 
plete  failures  were  114  in  number,  the  postponed 
successes,  3.  The  duplex  experiments  were  in  one 
case  completely  successful  and  in  several  cases 


DIAGRAMS 


153 


partially  successful.  How  far,  if  at  all,  these 
results  exceed  expectation  it  is  difficult  to  say.  It 
is  clear  that  much  depends  on  the  extent  to  which 
half  and  partial  successes  might  be  brought  into 
connexion  with  other  diagrams  than  those  actually 
used  in  the  experiment.  In  proportion  as  this  was 
possible,  the  excess  of  successes,  if  any,  is  dimin¬ 
ished.  It  seems,  however,  clear  that  five  complete 
successes  out  of  160  is  considerably  in  excess  of 
expectation,  and  if  that  is  so  the  evidence  for  tele¬ 
pathy  cannot  but  be  strengthened  even  by  the  very 
moderate  results  here  set  forth. 


CHAPTER  IX 


Card  Experiments 

Independent  variables — Trials  in  same  room — 
Postponed  successes — Cyclic  guessing — Trials 
in  different  rooms. 

In  experiments  with  cards  and  numbers  statistical 
evaluation  of  the  expectation  is  possible.  In  some 
respects  experiments  with  cards  offer  advantages 
over  those  with  numbers.  We  have  in  a  playing 
card  a  combination  of  two  independent  elements, 
which  are  perhaps,  however,  sufficiently  closely 
combined  in  the  thoughts  of  the  average  unre¬ 
generate  human  being  as  to  he  little  more  difficult 
to  grasp  than  the  simple  number.  When  we  have 
independent  variables  combined  in  this  way,  we 
have,  it  is  clear,  a  method  of  discovering  whether 
any  unknown  cause  is  operating  which  is,  on  the 
whole,  more  certain,  where  the  excess  above  ex¬ 
pectation  is  small,  than  where  we  have  only  one 
element  to  he  guessed.  If  experience  shows  that 
the  tendency  is  for  success  or  failure  in  guessing 
the  two  variables  to  go  together,  or,  in  other  words, 
if  the  good  “  number  ”  days  are  also  good  “  suit  " 
days,  we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  there  is 


154 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


155 


a  common  cause  at  work,  whether  it  be  the  ordinary 
operation  of  the  sensory  perceptions,  or  hyper¬ 
esthesia,  or  telepathic  influence  of  some  sort. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  absence  of  this  concomitant 
variation  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  absolutely 
conclusive  evidence  against  telepathy,  for  it  is 
clear  that,  in  so  far  as  the  agent  is  unable  to  or 
does  not  grasp  the  card  as  a  whole,  but  needs  to 
deal  with  the  number  and  the  suit  as  independent 
factors,  the  supposition  no  longer  holds  good  on 
which  was  based  the  expectation  of  concomitant 
variation. 

Two  thousand  and  eighty  single  (i.e.  with  one 
percipient)  trials  took  place  at  the  rooms  of  the 
S.P.R. ;  I  took  part  as  percipient  in  1,339,  and  as 
agent  in  585;  in  the  remainder,  156  in  number, 
Mr.  Piddington  was  the  agent.  In  analysing  the 
results,  which  were  not  in  themselves  much,  if  at 
all,  above  expectation,  I  hit  upon  a  method  of 
treating  the  figures,  analogous  indeed  to  that 
used  by  Mrs.  Sidgwick,  inasmuch  as  I  separated 
the  good  series  from  the  bad,  but  even,  as  far  as  I 
went,  a  step  further  and  considered  the  possibility 
of  another  element,  that  of  postponed  successes. 
The  trials  took  place  in  batches  of  thirteen  or  twenty- 
six,  in  one  series  with  agent  and  percipient  in 
the  same  room,  in  another  and  longer  set  with 
agent  and  percipient  in  different  rooms.  The 


156  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


signal  was  in  the  second  set  given  by  ringing  an 
electric  bell ;  communication  was  otherwise  diffi¬ 
cult  or  impossible,  the  rooms  being  separated  by  a 
store  room;  access  to  both  was  from  a  landing, 
but  the  doors  were  separated  by  some  ten  feet  and 
were  at  right  angles  to  one  another  so  that  no 
sound,  unless  of  the  nature  of  a  thump  on  the  door 
or  the  floor,  was  audible  from  one  room  to  the  other 
when  both  doors  were  closed. 

The  analysis  of  series  A,  which  was  conducted 
with  agent  and  percipient  in  the  same  room,  the 
card  drawing  being  written  down  after  the  guess, 
but  not  told  to  the  percipient  till  the  end  of  the  series 
of  thirteen,  showed  that  there  was  in  my  own  case 
a  marked  tendency  for  the  card  itself,  and  a  less 
marked  tendency  for  the  suits  and  numbers  of 
the  card  drawn  for  one  experiment  to  appear  in 
the  guess  following,  a  result  which  may,  without 
prejudging  the  cause  to  which  that  success  was  due, 
be  termed  a  postponed  success.  It  suggested  itself 
as  a  possible  explanation  of  this  phenomenon  that 
I  was  able  to  interpret  unconsciously  the  sound  of 
the  pencil  and  thus  discover  the  card.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  was  not  impossible  that  the  result 
was  due  not  to  ordinary  sense  perception  of  un¬ 
usual  delicacy,  but  to  another  means  of  trans¬ 
mission  which  we  describe  provisionally  as  telepathy. 
With  a  view  to  testing  these  hypotheses,  I  tried 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


157 


another  long  series  with  agent  and  percipient  in 
different  rooms.  An  analysis  of  the  results  of  series 
C  in  the  main  and  in  detail,  distributing  them  ac¬ 
cording  to  success  or  failure  in  naming  cards,  num¬ 
bers,  and  suits,,  showed,  however,  that,  so  far  from 
postponed  successes  being  distributed  according  to 
the  same  law  as  in  the  previous  series,  the  relation 
was  in  many  cases  just  the  reverse.  Into  this  I  go 
more  in  detail  below,  as  well  as  into  the  real  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  successes  in  series  A. 

A  few  experiments  were  tried  with  two  perci¬ 
pients.  Here,  too,  there  is  a  manifest  advantage 
in  using  in  an  experiment  two  independent  variables. 
This  advantage  is,  however,  largely  neutralized, 
so  far  as  the  production  of  direct  evidence  of 
thought  transference  goes,  by  the  possibility  of 
thought  transference  between  the  percipients  as 
well  as  to  them.  When  the  trials  are  further 
analysed  to  show  in  what  cases,  if  any,  there  were 
postponed  successes,  we  have  a  considerable  com¬ 
plication.  In  fact,  if  thought  transference  takes 
place  at  all,  it  may  be  from  the  agent  A  to  both 
the  percipients,  B  and  C,  or  to  either  of  them,  or 
from  B  to  C,  or  vice  versa,  directly ;  there  may  also 
be  thought  transference  from  A  to  B,  or  C,  or  both, 
or  from  B  to  C,  or  C  to  B,  which  results  in  a  post¬ 
poned  success ;  and  direct  and  postponed  successes 
may  obviously  be  combined  in  more  than  one  way. 


158  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


On  the  whole,  therefore,  this  method  of  experi¬ 
mentation  does  not  seem  to  promise  to  give  with 
cards  as  satisfactory  results  as  have  been  attained 
with  diagrams  or  other  objects  where  the  individual 
trial  can  be  prolonged  until  the  subconscious  image, 
if  any,  has  come  to  the  surface.  At  the  same  time, 
even  though  it  may  be  difficult  to  evaluate  the  proba¬ 
bilities,  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  a  close  relation 
displayed  between  the  cards  drawn  and  the  guesses 
of  one  of  the  percipients  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
guesses  of  the  other  percipient  on  the  other  hand, 
may  constitute  effective  evidence  in  favour  of 
thought  transference. 

In  the  663  experiments  tried  with  the  agent  and 
percipient  in  the  same  room,  the  card  being  written 
down  after  the  percipient  had  made  his  guess, 
N.  W.  Thomas  was  percipient  in  442  with  Miss 
Larminie  as  agent,  and  the  relation  was  reversed  in 
the  remainder.  The  agent  sat  behind  an  American 
roll  top  desk,  in  such  a  position  that  no  reflections 
could  give  a  clue  to  the  card  drawn ;  as  an  addi¬ 
tional  precaution  the  fronts  of  the  Globe-Wernicke 
bookcases  were  usually  drawn  up ;  but  it  would 
have  been  impossible  in  any  case  to  see  anything 
in  them,  even  if  the  eyes  of  the  percipient  were  not, 
as  was  usually  the  case,  closed  while  the  experiments 
were  going  on.  The  total  successes  were  in  the  two 
cases  as  follows — 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


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rt  C 

■a  <l> 


- 'g  <rt  Urg*  ! 

§1.8  gl- 

8gr 


1  ~  'Oko.j'Sio 


t/i  "r  rj  u. 

D  O  0  « 


<D 

e 

O  Jj  C  5,  V  ?■ 
<D  <->  !2  T1  -E,  <*> 

ssfl** 

«--rRg  P 
^  u  x  S 
c  2^  1/1  ^  c 

rt.-  rt  O  w  u 

•5  73  in  °*'Z  S 
K.g.S’g 

CD  „  rt  C  ~  _c 

SSS^o 
O  —  O  M  o  'P 
.a  a  8  <u  o  -g 


ie-S.S*Bg« 

,  .2  rt  53  K  3  3~ 

,  -e  o  w  <D  O  1/1  rt 

!  .2  a  <u  £  u  -c  E 

:  S  «£^5S( 

•  >  or1.,  ti£>  c< 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Suits. 

X 

X  X 

X  X  o 

Remarks. 

Nos. 

X 

o 

X 

X  X 

Cards. 

o 

X 

x  x 

a 

Suits. 

■'T 

CClH 

TrtN-*fcOIC|C« 

HrtT*^0r4H 

u 

3 

in 

O) 

c. 

o 

a 

£ 

—  19 

& 

& 

Cards. 

c|e*Hrt<Ntr» 

1 

o 

3 

C/) 

u 

Suits. 

LO 

ajtn  ^ 

W  | 

e^iWcto 

Nos. 

ske«* 

5 

Cards. 

o 

•scw.^ 

eflOfHriwfco 

•^NL'hHrH  _ 

221 

vo  N  vo 

LO  LT)  LT) 
*-V 

MvO  M 

lO  LT,  UTk 

Percipient. 

f7.  Larminie. 

All  days. 

Bad  days. 

Cards 

Nos. 

Suits 

Cood  days. 

Cards 

Nos. 

Suits 

In  each  of  these  tables  the  numerator  of  the  fraction  shows  the  actual,  the  denominator,  the  probable  number  of 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


161 


It  is  a  striking  and  important  fact  that,  as  this 
statement  shows,  the  successes  and  failures  in 
direct  results  corresponded  to  failures  and  suc¬ 
cesses  in  postponed  results,  and  that  the  deviation 
from  expectation  was  greatest  in  cards  in  the  one 
case,  and  in  cards  and  numbers  in  the  other  case, 
whereas  in  suits  it  was,  though  very  perceptible, 
far  less  marked.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
chance  of  guessing  the  suit  correctly  is  one  in  four 
and  that  there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  guess  suits 
in  a  kind  of  cycle;  in  other  words,  that  whereas 
pure  chance  would,  in  the  long  run,  show  a  fairly 
even  distribution  of  choice  among  the  suits,  the 
effect  of  the  voluntary  element  in  the  selection  is 
to  make  the  difference  less  perceptible  in  short 
series  than  they  otherwise  would  be.  If,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  hearts  has  been  guessed,  one  of  the  other 
three  suits  is  more  likely  to  be  guessed,  to  an  extent 
impossible  to  estimate,  in  the  next  trial,  and,  to  a 
less  extent,  one  of  the  two  remaining  ones  in  the 
following  trial,  and  so  on.  The  effect  of  this  is, 
where  the  series  is  on  the  whole  unsuccessful,  to 
render  a  postponed  success  more  probable  than  if 
chance  alone  regulated  the  choice  of  a  suit.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  tends  to  eliminate  any  effect  due  to 
telepathy,  inasmuch  as  the  selection  is  not  made 
at  random,  so  far  as  the  percipient’s  conscious 
action  is  concerned;  this  would  only  happen  if  in 


M 


1 62 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


each  case  the  percipient  had  forgotten,  or  could 
dismiss  from  his  mind,  the  previous  guess,  and  this 
is  naturally  very  difficult  where  each  trial  does  not 
occupy  more  than  thirty  seconds.  It  seems  clear 
that,  so  far  as  direct  successes  are  concerned,  the 
result  is  to  diminish  the  chances  of  success,  if  there 
is  any  telepathic  element ;  the  case  is  less  clear 
in  the  case  of  postponed  successes,  but  probably 
the  chances  of  success  are,  after  a  previous  failure, 
increased ;  for,  quite  apart  from  any  telepathic 
element,  the  chance  of  guessing  right  is  nearer 
i  in  3  than  i  in  4,  and  the  cyclic  tendency  would 
not  conflict  perceptibly  with  any  telepathic  im¬ 
pulse  to  choose  the  right  suit.  An  examination 
of  the  more  detailed  analysis  shows  that  the  same 
law  holds  good  both  for  good  and  bad  days  as  for 
the  results  as  a  whole.  Taking  cards  and  numbers, 
as  well  as  suits,  save  where  the  results,  in  both  cases, 
are  equal  to  the  expectation  or  differ  from  it  only 
by  unity,  and  5  of  the  9  cases  of  this  are  on  N.  W- 
T.’s  good  days,  the  same  relation  is  found;  or,  in 
other  words,  in  24  cases  out  of  33,  direct  successes 
are  in  inverse  proportion  to  postponed  successes ;  in 
the  remaining  9  cases  we  cannot  speak  of  the  result 
as  either  a  success  or  a  failure,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  it  is  practically  just  what  chance  alone  would 
give. 

Now  it  is  apparent  that  what  has  been  said  of 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS  163 

the  cyclic  nature  of  the  guesses  applies  practically 
only  to  suits.  There  may  be  a  tendency  to  guess 
all  the  numbers  once  in  each  thirteen  trials,  but 
the  influence  on  any  individual  guess  is  indefinitely 
smaller  than  in  the  case  of  suits ;  in  the  case  of 
cards  this  tendency  is  almost  non-existent,  for  one 
remembers  but  seldom  whether  any  particular  card 
has  been  guessed  during  the  series  of  5 2.  If,  there¬ 
fore,  no  other  cause  can  be  traced  for  the  correlation 
between  direct  and  postponed  successes  and  failures 
in  this  series  of  trials,  the  results  are  prima  facie 
evidence  in  favour  of  telepathy,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  totals  do  not,  except  in  two  cases,  markedly 
exceed  expectation. 

It  has  been  suggested  above  that  hyperesthesia, 
or  at  any  rate  unsuspected  delicacy  of  normal 
perception,  may  have  operated  to  cause  the  plus  of 
postponed  successes.  It  is  clearly  no  far-fetched 
hypothesis  that  the  ear  could  detect  and  interpret 
the  difference  of  the  sound  of  the  pencil  according 
to  the  name  of  the  suit  that  was  being  written. 
But  it  must  be  noted  that  it  is  precisely  in  suits, 
when  on  this  hypothesis  the  result  should  be  most 
marked,  that  the  difference  between  expectation 
and  result  is  smallest.  In  the  case  of  numbers 
which  would  only  be  readily  apprehended  in  the 
way  suggested  above  after  considerably  more 
practice  than  in  the  case  of  suits,  the  results  are 


1 64  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


actually  more  striking  than  in  the  case  of  suits.  It 
seems,  therefore,  difficult  to  explain  the  facts  on 
this  theory. 

In  the  second  place,  even  if  this  view  were  satis¬ 
factory  in  the  cases  where  the  postponed  successes 
exceed  expectation,  it  could  not  account  for  the 
cases  where  the  inverse  relation  is  still  found,  but 
with  the  plus  on  the  side  of  the  direct  successes; 
these  cases  make  up  8  of  the  24  cases  in  which  the 
results  deviated  from  expectation;  7  of  these  refer 
to  the  trials  when  Miss  Larminie  was  percipient. 

Finally  the  theory  of  hypersesthesia  does  not 
explain  the  very  considerable  plus  in  the  case  of 
cards  when  N.  W.  T.  was  percipient.  It  is  clear 
that  if  this  plus  is  due  to  independent  perception 
of  the  two  elements — the  number  and  the  suit 
— by  auditory  means,  there  is  no  reason  why  they 
should  appear  more  often  conjoined  than  apart. 
The  number  of  cases  is,  it  is  true,  small,  but,  so 
far  as  the  evidence  goes,  it  seems  to  show  that  the 
cause  which  produced  the  plus  of  successes  in  cards 
was  not  independent  perception  of  the  elements; 
for  then  we  should  expect  a  far  higher  proportion 
of  successes  in  the  elements  disjoined  than  was 
actually  the  case,  viz.,  13  per  cent,  and  5  per  cent. 
On  the  other  hand  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
how  telepathic  influence  might  bring  about  the 
result.  Postponed  successes  in  cards,  due,  ex 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


165 


hypothcsi,  to  a  specially  strong  telepathic  influence 
which  takes  some  time  to  emerge,  would  naturally 
tend  to  be  more  numerous  proportionately  than 
successes  in  the  individual  elements ;  where  the  tele¬ 
pathic  influence  is  selective  and  transmits  or  trans¬ 
mits  strongly  only  one  of  the  two  elements,  it  would, 
perhaps,  be  in  itself  weaker  and  therefore  less  likely 
to  operate;  for  whatever  makes  for  a  strong  impulse 
would  normally  make  for  an  impulse  embracing  both 
elements. 

I  now  turn  to  the  experiments,  distinguished  as 
Series  C,  in  which  the  agent  and  percipients  were 
in  different  rooms.  The  modus  operandi  was  as 
follows :  The  agent  was,  as  a  rule,  in  the  secretary's 
room,  and  the  percipient  in  the  library ;  the  second 
percipient,  if  there  was  one,  was  in  the  store  room 
between.  The  agent,  having  rung  the  electric 
bell  as  a  signal,  drew  a  card  from  one  pack,  and 
noted  it  on  a  numbered  sheet ;  for  the  second  card 
another  pack  was  utilised,  to  ensure  adequate 
shuffling  of  the  cards ;  notice  was  given  by  the  agent 
in  each  case  by  ringing  the  bell.  The  pace  of  the 
trials  was  therefore  independent  of  the  rate  at  which 
the  percipient  got  impressions  and  was  usually  de¬ 
cided  on  beforehand  when  the  agent  was  able  to 
shuffle,  draw,  and  record  faster  than  the  percipient 
got  an  impression. 

The  analysis  of  Series  C  is  as  follows — 


1 66  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


E 

v 

& 

Suits. 

O 

X  0  000 

~ 

1 

0 

1 

] 

0 

Nos. 

O 

X  ~  0  X  0  0 

0 

ox  00 

Cards. 

~  000 

p, 

I 

0 

I 

Postponed  Successes. 

Suits. 

C.|t~  O' 

COO  I 

1 

ac*nr+-ce.  *** 

crjD 

C^N  1 

HhT 

c*rc*o 

Hc-W* 

Nos. 

O 

rlrb  ►-* 

at^ 

CGfO 

CfcJH3» 

hH  ’  r-*?lCYX 

Cards. 

00 
0*0  •-» 
Hrt 

c*0t^x 

Direct  Successes. 

Suits. 

CN.OJ 

w 

Ho^ 

lopo 
hH  -J- 

c^r*o 

•oKorycj 

Nos. 

CCfcJ 

CCf'F’-lO’Ho 

</(o 

COM' 

T+fO  -«*H<CCfc» 

Cards. 

%2 

a 

c-|c>  m 

rTH 

Mtoa*c 

Trials. 

1^. 

O' 

CO 

try  n  n  O  in 

N  K  «  N  NOO 

cn  co  to  ivy  iv>  co 

O 

<N 

lO 

00  rf  O  vO 

OO  'O  ■ 

CS  «-<  rn  Tj- 

Percipient. 

iV.  IV,  Thomas. 

Good  days. 

Cards 

Nos. 

Suits 

Bad  days. 

Cards 

Nos. 

Suits 

V.  Larminie. 

Good  days. 

Cards 

Nos. 

Suits1 

Bad  days. 

Cards 

Nos. 

1  Suits  were  normal  on  one  day,  on  all  other  days  above. 
2  For  explanation  of  Signs  see  page  159. 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


167 


The  inverse  relation  of  successes  and  failures  is, 
as  the  foregoing  table  shows,  preserved  in  not  a 
single  case  out  of  six  in  the  results  as  a  whole;  in 
two  cases  the  relation  is  reversed,  and  both  sides 
are  above  expectation ;  in  the  three  cases  one  of 
the  factors  to  be  compared  is  normal,  and  the  re¬ 
maining  one  is,  in  each  case,  above  normal,  and  in 
one  case  both  are  normal.  The  consideration  of  the 
results  as  a  whole  therefore  lends  no  support  to  the 
theory  of  thought  transference. 

If  we  now  take  the  detailed  analysis,  we  find 
the  inverse  relation  in  4  cases  out  of  30,  the  simple 
relation  (both  above)  in  8,  both  are  normal  in  2, 
and  the  remaining  16  are  indeterminate,  one  factor 
being  normal  and  the  other  six  times  above  and  ten 
times  below  normal.  Here  again  we  find  no  sup¬ 
port  for  the  hypothesis  of  thought  transference,  so 
far  as  such  analysis  can  throw  any  light  on  the 
matter.  We  may,  however,  note  that  on  N.  W.  T.’s 
bad  days  the  inverse  relation  is  found  on  four 
occasions  and  the  indeterminate  on  five.  In  Series 
A  the  bad  days  seemed  in  the  case  of  the  same 
percipient  to  be  accounted  for,  if  there  was  any 
telepathic  element,  by  the  slow  emergence  of  the 
impulse.  That  being  so  we  seem  to  have  in  the 
bad  days  of  Series  C  a  continuation  of  the  same 
phenomenon,  though  here  it  seems  to  be  on  the 
whole  more  prominent  in  the  numbers,  the  cards 


1 68  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


being  in  one  case  above  normal,  and  the  suit  in  two 
cases,  when  one  of  the  other  elements  was  below 
normal. 

For  comparison  with  Series  A  I  have  given  the 
percentages  above  and  below  the  normal.  In  only 
five  cases  out  of  twelve  are  they  the  same  as  in  the 
previous  trials.  In  both  N.  W.  T.  got  postponed 
cards  and  numbers  above  the  normal;  V.  L.  on  the 
other  hand  got  cards  postponed  just  above  the 
normal.  In  five  cases  the  results  in  one  or  other 
series  did  not  differ  from  the  normal  by  more  than 
io  per  cent.,  a  variation  well  within  the  normal 
limits  in  a  short  series ;  in  the  remaining  cases  the 
figures  (for  cards)  varied  from  the  normal,  oji  small 
numbers,  by  no  more  than  two,  and  may  conse¬ 
quently  be  neglected. 

It  is  perhaps  idle  to  suggest  causes  for  a  varia¬ 
tion  which  may  be  due  to  chance  alone,  but  it 
seems  desirable  to  point  out  the  two  series  were 
carried  out  under  somewhat  different  conditions, 
quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  in  Series  A,  agent 
and  percipient  were  in  the  same  room.  In  the 
first  series  the  signal  for  the  next  trial  was  a  guess 
by  the  percipient,  in  Series  C  the  agent  was  able 
to  communicate  with  the  percipient,  but  not  vice 
versa;  consequently,  the  series  once  started,  the 
pace  was  out  of  the  percipient’s  control  and  the 
knowledge  of  this  fact,  no  less  than  the  different 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS  169 

speed  at  which  the  two  series  were  taken,  may  well 
have  had  some  influence  on  the  results. 

In  considering  the  evidence  from  direct  and 
postponed  successes,  it  should  not  be  overlooked 
that  the  same  item  may  appear  in  both  if  two  suits, 
numbers  or  cards  drawn  in  succession  are  the  same. 
The  results  cannot  therefore  be  added.  In  Series 
A  (N.  W.  T.)  there  were  24  coincidences  of  this 
sort,  in  Series  C  (N.  W.  T.),  28;  in  Series  A 
(V.L.),  18,  and  in  Series  C,  34. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  on  each  of  the  eleven 
days  on  which  Miss  Larminie  was  percipient  the 
suits  only  once  fell  below  expectation,  and  that  in  a 
short  series. 

It  may  be  well  to  call  attention  here  to  a  factor 
which  tends  to  reduce  any  excess  of  successes. 
This  is  the  fact,  already  noticed  in  another  con¬ 
nexion,  that  the  percipient,  as  a  rule,  seldom  guesses 
suits  in  pairs ;  that  is  to  say,  that  hearts  having 
been  guessed,  the  next  guess  is  more  likely  to  be 
clubs,  spades,  or  diamonds,  whereas  if  chance 
alone  operated,  or,  if  the  percipient  forgot  in  each 
case  the  previous  guess,  each  of  the  four  suits  would 
be  equally  likely.  The  extent  of  this  tendency 
naturally  differs  with  the  individual.  In  the  case 
of  Miss  Larminie  a  pair  was  guessed  on  an  average 
four  times  in  52  trials,  in  the  case  of  N.  W.  Thomas 
only  three  times,  against  expectation,  if  chance 


I/O  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


alone  operated,  of  6  or  7  pairs  and  one  or  two  trios, 
with  a  quartet  in  every  100  trials. 

The  result  of  this  is  manifest.  While  it  does  not 
reduce  the  chances  below  1  in  4,  it  leads  to  reduce 
any  excess  above  1  in  4.  If  for  example,  to  take 
an  extreme  case,  some  cause  operated  to  make 
half  instead  of  one-fourth  of  the  guesses  successful, 
so  long  as  this  cyclic  tendency  did  not  make  its 
appearance,  there  would  be  26  successes  in  52 
trials ;  three  or  four  pairs  would  be  guessed  correctly. 
The  cyclic  tendency  would  reduce  the  number  of 
pairs  correctly  guessed,  if  the  law  of  averages  were 
strictly  adhered  to,  by  one-half  or  more  in  the  two 
cases  under  consideration.  This  would  mean  that 
the  total  successes  out  of  fifty-two  trials  would  be 
less  by  two.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  2,000 
odd  trials  the  coincidences  between  guessed  doublets 
and  drawn  doublets,  which  should,  allowing  for 
cyclic  guessing,  have  been  about  sixteen  in  number, 
were  actually  only  four,  a  variation  for  which  I 
cannot  suggest  any  explanation. 

The  net  result  is,  of  course,  not  large;  but  the 
influence,  whatever  it  was,  which  caused  the  dis¬ 
crepancy,  has  clearly  reduced  the  number  of  suc¬ 
cesses  by  about  3  per  cent.  Unless,  or  until,  this 
negative  result  is  explained  as  not  due  to  chance 
alone,  the  probability  of  thought  transference  as 
an  operative  cause  in  the  series  we  have  been  con- 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


1 71 

sidering  is  diminished ;  for  if  chance  alone  can 
produce  such  a  result  in  a  fairly  long  series,  it  may 
well  account  for  the  successes. 

I  now  turn  to  the  consideration  of  the  trials 
with  two  percipients;  the  analysis,  more  com¬ 
plicated  than  in  the  case  of  a  single  percipient,  is  as 
follows : — 


Dec.  *3. 

Percipient. 

Trials. 

Successes 
from  Agent. 

Cross  Successes  Postponed. 

Direct. 

Mrs.  V. 

Miss  V. 

N  W.  T. 

Direct. 

Post¬ 

poned. 

to  Miss  V. 

to  NAV.T. 

to  M 

rs.  V. 

Mrs.  Verrall1 

26 

? 

8 

0 

2 

3 

2 

4 

Suits 

i 

I 

I 

I 

I 

O 

I 

Nos. 

Q 

O 

O 

O 

O 

O 

I 

Cards 

Miss  V. 

N.W.T. 

Mrs.  V. 

to  Mrs.  V. 

to  N.W.T. 

to  Miss  V. 

Miss  Verrall  2 

39 

II 

5 

2 

5 

8 

2 

Suits 

i 

I 

I 

O 

I 

3 

I 

Nos. 

0 

O 

O 

O 

I 

3 

O 

Cards 

N.  \V.  T. 

Mrs.  V. 

Miss  V. 

to  Mrs.  V. 

to  Miss  V. 

to  N.W.  T  . 

N.  W.  Thomas 

39 

is 

6 

5 

4 

8 

S 

3 

Suits 

3 

4 

O 

I 

3 

I 

1 

Nos. 

0 

I 

O 

I 

3 

O 

O 

Cards 

1  Agent  in  one  series. 

2  Agent  in  two  series. 

The  fractions  in  the  column  of  direct  successes  from  the  agent  show  the  proportion 
of  successes  to  expectation. 


172  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Jan.  14. 

Percipient. 

Trials. 

Successes 

Cross  Successes  Postponed. 

Direct. 

Post¬ 

poned. 

Direct. 

L.  to  T. 

T.  to  L. 

Miss  L.1 

26 

8 

7 

'i 

O 

O 

'3 

6 

6 

Suits 

Mrs.  G. 

26 

4 

2 

9 

3 

V  2 

I  I 

3 

I 

3 

1 

Nos. 

Cards 

O 

1 

J 

Feb.  2.2 3 

R.  to  T. 

T.  to  R. 

Miss  R.s 

13 

3 

4 

1 

2 

Suits 

2 

2 

1 

2 

I 

Nos. 

O 

1 

O 

0 

I 

Cards 

H.  to  T. 

T.  to  H. 

Mrs.  II.4 

39 

16 

7 

10 

9 

9 

Suits 

5 

3 

6 

3 

Nos. 

1 

O 

3 

I 

2 

Cards 

T. 

R. 

H. 

to  R. 

to  H. 

to  T. 

N.  W.  T. 

]0 

JO 

IO 

I  I 

5 

9 

2 

9 

Suits 

6 

3 

7 

I 

3 

2 

3 

Nos. 

2 

I 

3 

I 

2 

O 

1 

Cards 

Feb,  19. 

H.  to  L. 

L.  to  H. 

MissLarminie5 

47 

J4 

20 

13 

I 

•3 

3 

3 

4 

O 

1 

l 

O 

2 

O 

0 

Mrs.  H. 

47 

16 

15 

3 

2 

I 

1 

1  J.  G.  Piddington,  agent. 

2  For  a  copy  of  the  record  in  a  portion  of  this  experiment,  see  p.  210. 

3  Agent  in  three  series. 

4  Agent  in  one  series. 

6  Agent,  N.  W.  Thomas. 


CARD  EXPERIMENTS 


173 


In  these  five  sets  of  trials,  which  are  not  selected 
in  any  way,  but  constitute  the  whole  of  those  made 
with  two  percipients,  the  direct  successes  from 
agent  to  either  of  the  percipients  were  6  cards,  32 
numbers  and  109  suits  in  406  trials,  a  result  only 
slightly  above  chance  in  the  case  of  the  two  latter. 
If  we  look  at  the  direct  correspondence  between 
the  two  percipients,  we  find  that,  in  spite  of  our  un¬ 
successful  series,  the  percipients  guessed  the  same 
card  7  times  in  190  trials,  as  against  expectation 
3  or  4.  More  striking  still  are  the  results  where 
N.  W.  Thomas  acted  as  one  of  the  percipients. 
Analysing  the  two  series,  91  trials  in  all,  we  find 
that  while  the  direct  correspondences  were  16,  7,  3 
with  numbered  cards,  the  postponed  successes  of 
the  second  percipient,  in  other  words  the  guesses 
which  showed  a  relation  to  N.  W.  T.’s  preceding 
guess,  were  26  suits,  8  numbers  and  7  cards,  as 
against  expectation  21,  6  or  7,  1  or  2. 

1  Agent,  N.  W.  Thomas. 


174  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

There  is  an  obvious  clanger  in  selecting  in  a  short 
series  the  performances  of  one  agent  (or  possible 
agent),  however  much  they  may  be  above  chance, 
and  founding  on  them  an  argument.  But  if 
thought  transference  is  a  fact,  we  might  expect  to 
find  considerable  variation ;  and  one  agent  is  likely 
to  be,  in  the  long  run,  considerably  more  successful 
than  another.  In  the  present  case  the  selection 
of  results  seems  to  be  justified  by  the  other  series. 
Leaving  out  of  account  the  successes  just  mentioned, 
in  the  626  trials  where  N.  W.  T.  acted  as  agent,  the 
successes  in  cards  were  16  as  against  expectation 
12,  a  percentage  less  marked  indeed  than  that  in 
the  duplex  trials,  but  still  not  inconsiderable ;  the 
suits  were  slightly  above  chance,  and  the  numbers 
showed  a  plus  of  8  or  16  per  cent.  The  totals  for 
all  trials  in  which  N.  W.  Thomas  acted  as  agent  are 
23  cards,  64  numbers,  and  185  suits,  showing  an 
excess  of  67  per  cent.,  16  per  cent.,  and  3  per  cent, 
respectively. 


CHAPTER  X 

The  net  result — Future  investigation 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  sum  up  the  net 
result  of  experiments  so  diverse  in  their  nature  and 
outcome  as  the  various  series  described  above. 
With  the  exception  of  the  card  series,  none  of  the 
trials  embraced  any  great  number  of  separate  ex¬ 
periments,  and  in  none  of  the  brief  series  is  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  chance  coincidence  excluded,  however  im¬ 
probable  it  may  appear  in  certain  cases.  The  results 
of  the  card  experiments,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
hardly  sufficiently  decisive  for  it  to  be  possible  to 
base  any  conclusion  on  them. 

I  am  less  disposed  to  sum  up  the  miscellan¬ 
eous  experiments  here  published  for  the  first  time, 
as  it  is,  a  priori,  certain  that  no  argument  based 
upon  them  is  likely  to  affect  any  one’s  convictions. 
Those  who  are  satisfied  that  telepathy  “  and  all 
that  nonsense  ”  is  impossible,  will  not  be  moved, 
even  if  an  angel  come  from  heaven.  Those  who  hold 
that  the  mass  of  evidence  is  yet  too  small,  or  that 
in  many  of  the  previous  trials  the  conditions  have 
not  been  such  as  to  exclude  undesired  perturbations, 


175 


i  ;6 


THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


will  not  find  in  the  present  contribution  matter  of 
sufficient  weight  to  turn  the  scale  in  favour  of  tele¬ 
pathy.  Perhaps  those  who  are  already  convinced 
that  thought  transference  is  a  fact  will  think  me 
unduly  exacting,  when  I  demand  more  evidence  and 
especially  more  recent  evidence  than  any  which  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  has  put  before  us. 
I  should  therefore  run  the  risk  of  offending  all  my 
readers  and  pleasing  none.  Not  only  so;  I  should 
probably  fail  to  please  myself,  if  not  at  the  moment, 
at  any  rate,  after  an  interval  for  reflection. 

I  adopt,  therefore,  the  safer  plan  of  leaving  my 
readers  to  make  up  their  minds  on  the  subject  of 
these  experiments  for  themselves.  If  I  venture  to 
express  my  own  conviction  on  the  subject,  it  is 
that  much  more  effort,  and,  in  particular,  much  more 
systematic  effort,  is  needed  before  we  can  safely 
assert  that  telepathy  is  a  proved1  fact.  When  we 
have  arrived  at  that  point  our  task  is  only  begun. 
No  inquiry  can  lay  claim  to  be  scientific  which 
expresses  its  results  in  general  terms  when  it  can 
give  them  in  precise  terms.  The  study  of  heredity 

1  By  this  I  mean  proved  by  direct  experiment.  When 
we  take  into  account  crystal  gazing  and  the  spontaneous 
cases,  the  weight  of  evidence  in  favour  of  telepathy  is  con¬ 
siderably  greater.  For  a  discussion  of  the  latter  cases  see 
Phantasms  of  the  Living  and  the  census  ( Proc .  S.P.R.,  x.  14, 
sq.).  Crystal  gazing  is  dealt  with  in  another  volume  of  this 
series. 


N 


THE  NET  RESULT 


1 77 


and  other  biological  questions  has  become  a  question 
of  statistics,  and  psychical  research  must  also  be 
made  a  question  of  statistics  if  further  conclusions 
are  to  be  based  on  the  results. 

The  statistical  method  has  of  course  been  applied, 
especially  in  the  case  of  death-wraiths,  which  formed 
the  subject  of  an  elaborate  statistical  inquiry  some 
twelve  years  ago.  It  has  also  been  applied  to 
experimental  thought  transference  data,  but  it  has 
hardly  been  recognized  that  the  few  complete  series 
which  have  been  published  are  sufficient  even  to 
demonstrate  the  mere  fact  of  telepathy,  and,  a 
fortiori,  for  statistical  purposes. 

Many  of  the  earlier  series  were  not  published  in 
cxtcnso.  Of  those  which  have  been  published  in 
full,  the  Brighton  experiments  depended  largely,  if 
not  entirely,  on  the  efforts  of  a  single  agent.  It 
would  be  well  for  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
to  recognize  this  and  organize  further  experiments 
on  a  large  scale  before  assuming,  as  its  members 
commonly  do  in  discussions  on  trance  mediumship, 
that  telepathy  is  a  vera  cansa,  and  not  only  needs  no 
further  demonstration,  hut  may  be  invoked  on  any 
and  every  occasion,  regardless  of  the  fact  that,  in  so 
doing,  a  role  is  frequently  assigned  to  it  which  may 
well  stagger  the  imagination,  though  no  evidence, 
scientific  or  otherwise,  has  ever  been  presented  for 
the  telepathic  power  in  the  extreme  form  in  which  it 


178  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


is  invoked,  to  explain  away  experiments  more  readily 
explained  on  a  spiritistic  hypothesis. 

The  telepathic  or  some  other  non-spiritistic  ex¬ 
planation  may  well  be  the  true  one  in  many,  perhaps 
in  all  cases ;  at  present,  thanks  to  the  lack  of  data  col¬ 
lected  with  due  precautions,  a  state  of  things  largely 
due  to  lack  of  scientific  education  among  spiritual¬ 
ists,  and  to  their  want  of  appreciation  of  the  funda¬ 
mentals  of  scientific  evidence,  the  supposed  proofs 
of  spiritualism,  or  in  other  words  of  the  continued 
existence  of  those  who  have  undergone  the  change 
we  call  death,  are  from  any  standpoint  with  the  least 
claim  to  be  called  scientific,  hardly,  if  at  all,  better 
founded  than  those  of  telepathy,  and  these,  as  I 
have  suggested,  are  hardly  strong  enough  to  bear 
the  burden  put  upon  them.  The  evidence  for 
spiritualism,  however,  suffers  in  addition  from  this 
inherent  defect,  that  so  long  as  it  is  conceivable,  if 
perhaps  improbable,  that  all  the  facts  on  which  spirit¬ 
ualists  rely,  can  be  explained  away  by  a  telepathic 
hypothesis ;  or  by  some  such  theory  as  that  put 
forward  by  Dr.  Leaf,  who  holds  that  the  evidence 
gathered  from  the  phenomena  of  trance  mediumship 
points  in  the  direction  of  a  survival  of  memory,  but 
not  of  personality  (in  some  such  way  as  a  phono¬ 
graph  preserves  the  words  and  the  voice,  but  is  not 
itself  sentient),  the  extent  of  the  evidence  for 
spiritualism  must  remain  a  matter  of  doubt,  and  be 


THE  NET  RESULT 


179 


liable  to  reduction  in  proportion  as  we  can  justly 
ascribe  to  telepathy  the  supercognitive1  phenomena 
of  trance  mediumship. 

But  it  is  equally  clear  that  we  are  by  no  means 
entitled  to  assume  the  truth  of  telepathy  on  insuffi¬ 
cient  grounds  and  invoke  it  on  any  and  every  occa¬ 
sion  in  preference  to  spiritualistic  explanations. 
Any  hypothesis  that  has  the  least  claim  to  he  called 
scientific  must  rest  on  laws,  not  on  guesses ;  and  in 
order  to  have  any  value  in  the  present  case  these 
laws  must  he  formulated  with  a  degree  of  definite¬ 
ness  that  will  only  be  possible  after  enormous  labour. 

The  Society  for  Psychical  Research  was  formed 
to  investigate  telepathy  as  well  as  spiritualism.  At 
present  all  its  energies  seem  to  he  directed  towards 
inquiries  into  trance  mediumship,  automatic  writing, 
and  the  like,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  work  which 
should  really  form  the  foundation  of  the  whole 
structure  of  Psychical  Science,  the  establishment  of 
the  theory  of  telepathy,  if  true,  and  its  formulation 
in  the  most  definite  terms  possible. 

Perhaps  it  may  never  he  possible  to  formulate 
a  telepathic  law  in  terms  like  those  of  the  law  of 
gravitation,  or  to  devise  such  experimental  condi¬ 
tions  as  will  enable  the  student  of  trance  mediums 

1  Supercognition  is  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  by  su¬ 
pernormal  means.  For  a  glossary  of  psychical  terms  see  Proc. 
S.P.R.  vol.  xii. 


i So  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

to  say  with  confidence  that  his  results  cannot  be 
explained  by  telepathy.  But,  until  the  effort  has 
been  made,  no  investigation  into  trance  medium- 
ship  has  the  data  which  can  alone  enable  it  to 
formulate  reliable  conclusions.  In  order  to  justify 
its  existence  as  a  body  whose  object  it  is  to  approach 
the  study  of  these  questions  scientifically,  the 
Society  for  Psychical  Research  must  endeavour  to 
supply  these  data  and  again  take  up  the  question 
of  thought  transference.  That  other  subjects 
attract  a  greater  share  of  popular  interest  is  clearly 
no  reason  for  dropping  the  inquiry.  Still  less  is 
absence  of  success,  which  appears  to  have  prevented 
the  publication  of  the  trials  between  1892  and  1901, 
a  reason  for  discontinuing  them.  For  it  is  clear 
that  the  smaller  the  measure  of  success  under  rigid 
conditions,  the  more  probable  is  it  that  the  con¬ 
ditions  in  earlier  and  more  successful  trials  were 
lacking  in  some  essential  particular.  It  may  be 
added  that  whatever  be  the  reason  for  ill-success,  it 
seems  desirable  to  analyze  all  future  records,  or  at 
any  rate  preserve  them,  for  future  investigators, 
a  step  which  has  unfortunately  been  omitted  in  the 
past. 

Pending  organized  effort  of  this  kind,  much  may 
be  done  by  individuals.  My  object  has  been  to  give 
an  account  of  experiments  in  which  neither  agents 
nor  percipients  were  in  any  way  selected  and  which 


THE  NET  RESULT 


181 


may  therefore  be  taken  as  a  specimen  of  what  any 
one  may  hope  to  accomplish.  For  if  thought 
transference  is  ever  to  be  proved,  it  must  be  by 
showing  that  it  is  a  faculty  common  to  the  human 
race  and  not  one  absolutely  limited  to  a  few  in¬ 
dividuals.  Reasonably  or  unreasonably,  if  thought 
transference  cannot,  with  sufficient  patience  and 
sufficiently  delicate  methods  of  analysis,  be  demon¬ 
strated  on  the  corpus  rile,  or  rather  the  anima  vilis, 
of  the  ordinary  man,  it  will  for  the  mass  of  scientific 
men  remain,  at  any  rate,  on  the  borderland,  if  not  in 
the  limbo  of  superstitions  and  delusions. 

If  a  hundred,  or  five  hundred,  or  five  thousand, 
persons  were  prepared  to  try,  under  proper  condi¬ 
tions  (a  subject  to  which  I  return  below),  experi¬ 
ments  of  the  sort  described  here,  leaving  the  discus¬ 
sion  and  analysis  to  experts,  it  might  be  possible,  if 
not  to  demonstrate  thought  transference  from  the 
results,  at  any  rate  to  say  more  definitely  than  we 
can  at  present,  whether  the  ordinary  person  shows 
any  traces  of  such  a  faculty.  If  the  present  account, 
by  making  it  clear  that  thought  transference,  con¬ 
trary  to  the  commonly  received  opinion,  is  far  from 
having  been  experimentally  demonstrated,  stimulates 
public  interest  in  the  question  and  induces  some  of 
my  readers  to  experiment  and  submit  their  results  to 
myself  or  the  S.P.R.,  I  shall  have  attained  my 
object. 


CHAPTER  XI 


The  Ethics  of  criticism — Problems — Theories — Ob¬ 
jections — Mind  and  Matter — Psychophysical 
parallelism — The  Ignorance  of  science — Basis  of 
Belief  that  language  conveys  ideas 

In  the  opening  chapter  I  dealt  with  some  of  the 
general  objections  which  are,  or  have  been,  from 
time  to  time,  brought  against  telepathy  and  telses- 
thesia ;  in  connexion  with  the  various  experiments 
I  have  indicated  some  of  the  objections  which  might 
be  raised,  and  the  precautions  taken  to  avoid  causes 
of  error.  In  this  chapter,  I  propose  to  discuss  some 
of  the  problems  raised  by  the  experiments,  so  far 
as  they  can  be  regarded  as  evidence  of  telepathy 
and  telsesthesia,  and  to  return  to  some  of  the  ob¬ 
jections  urged  against  psychical  research.  In  the 
first  place,  I  may  notice  an  argument  which,  irra¬ 
tional  as  it  is,  seems  to  find  favour  with  a  certain  type 
of  critic.  A  writer  in  the  Academy  some  year  and  a 
half  ago,  undertook  to  inquire  into  the  evidence  for 
telepathy,  moved  thereto  by  the  dictum  of  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge  that  he  regarded  it  as  scientifically  proved; 
in  pursuance  of  this  object  he  visited  the  rooms  of  the 
Society  and  spent  fully  two  or  three  hours  in  con- 


182 


ETHICS  OF  CRITICISM 


183 

sidering  the  evidence,  published  and  in  MSS.,  and 
borrowed  two  volumes  containing  experiments.  We 
are  not  immediately  concerned  with  the  results  of 
this  investigation  into  the  facts;  it  would,  in  fact,  be 
difficult  to  discuss  them,  inasmuch  as  the  article 
contained  no  hint  of  the  reasons  which  led  the  author 
to  say  that  “  these  experiments  prove  nothing.” 

The  writer  describes  me  in  the  article  in  question 
as  “  a  representative  and  official  supporter  of  tele¬ 
pathy.”  I  certainly  was  not  an  official  supporter  of 
telepathy,  inasmuch  as  belief  in  telepathy  is  not  a 
condition  of  membership,  or  of  office  in  the  Society ; 
whether  I  was  a  representative  of  telepathy  I  cannot 
say,  as  the  phrase  conveys  no  meaning  to  me,  any 
more  than  the  statement  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
Royal  Society  is  a  representative  of  the  ether  or 
someone  else  of  telegony. 

In  the  course  of  conversation  during  his  visits  to 
the  Society’s  rooms  various  questions  were  dis¬ 
cussed  in  a  somewhat  fragmentary  manner ;  among 
other  points  I  was  asked  how  I  accounted  for  the 
failures.  The  writer  of  the  article  made  notes  of 
my  words,  whether  at  the  time  they  were  uttered  or 
subsequently,  he  does  not  state,  probably  the  latter, 
and  gives  my  explanation  in  the  following  terms : 
“  Well,  it’s  exactly  the  same — mind,  I  don’t  say 
there’s  the  slightest  analogy  [in  the  mode  of  opera¬ 
tion]^ — but  it  is  exactly  the  same  as  if  you  had  twenty 


1 84  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

Marconi  instruments  all  going  at  once  across  the 
same  space.”  In  the  above  sentence  I  have  inter¬ 
polated  in  square  brackets  words  which,  if  not 
actually  used  in  the  sentence  in  question,  had  been 
used  a  few  moments  before.  If  I  had  apprehended 
that  Dr.  Saleeby,  whom  I  had  no  reason  to  suspect 
of  any  other  than  the  ordinarily  received  views  on 
such  matter,  was  going  to  take  surreptitious  notes 
of  private  conversations,  and  if  I  had  imagined 
that  a  comparatively  simple  statement,  readily 
capable  of  being  construed  to  mean  something  more 
than  the  contradiction  in  terms,  which  was  all  Dr. 
Saleeby  could  see  in  it,  would  not  have  been  under¬ 
stood,  I  might  have  abstained  from  offering  an 
opinion.  On  the  question  of  failures  it  may  be  well 
to  say  a  few  words. 

Whether  we  take  the  view  that  telepathy,  so  far 
as  it  is  a  fact,  is  due  to  an  intermediate  chain  of 
physical  causation,  or  whether,  with  F.  W.  H. 
Myers,  we  regard  it  as  entirely  psychical  in  its 
nature,  one  thing  seems  certain.  That  is,  that  we 
have  no  warrant  for  limiting  the  influences  reaching 
the  brain  or  the  consciousness  of  the  percipient  to  the 
physical  or  psychical  energy  emitted  by  the  agent. 
Even  if  we  had  not  ample  experimental  evidence 
that  what  we  may  call  extraneous  ideas  are  apt 
to  intrude  themselves  from  the  minds  of  those  who 
are  not  attempting  a  transference,  some  examples 


PROBLEMS 


185 

of  which  will  be  found  on  pp.  14 1,  151,  this  would 
be,  a  priori ,  highly  probable,  and  the  accept¬ 
ance  of  this  idea  in  no  way  involves  acceptance  of 
“  brain-waves,”  or  any  other  form  of  waves,  as  a 
theory  of  thought  transference.  Interference  is 
equally  intelligible  on  the  physical  and  psychical 
views  of  telepathy. 

Interference  from  without  is,  of  course,  not  the 
whole  explanation.  Far  more  important  is  the  in¬ 
terference  due  to  the  ideas  and  images  of  the  perci¬ 
pient’s  own  mind.  As  an  example  of  what  may  well 
happen  in  such  cases,  I  may  point  to  the  analogous 
case  of  dreams  evoked,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  by  an 
external  cause.  A  friend  of  mine  at  Cambridge,  doz¬ 
ing  one  morning  after  waking,  and  before  getting  up, 
dreamed  that  he  was  standing  at  the  window  in  the 
Trinity  Lodge ;  he  saw  a  herd  of  cattle  begin  to  enter 
the  court  through  the  Great  Gate;  they  flowed  in  a 
steady  stream  beneath  the  Gate  Tower,  and  finally, 
when  the  whole  of  the  court,  two  or  three  acres  in 
extent,  was  filled  with  them,  the  drover  worked 
his  way  across  and,  standing  under  the  window, 
touched  his  hat,  saying,  “  Your  cattle,  sir.”  Then 
the  dreamer  awoke  to  the  fact  that  his  bed-maker 
was  knocking  at  his  door  for  the  second  time  and 
saying,  “  Your  kettle,  sir,”  as  an  intimation  that  his 
shaving  water  was  ready.  It  is  difficult  to  doubt 
the  explanation  of  the  dream,  if  we  accept  the  story. 


1 86  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Such  a  development  of  a  simple  suggestion  is  by 
no  means  incredible.  The  important  point,  however, 
for  our  present  purpose  is  that  if  the  dreamer  and 
his  bed-maker  had  been  percipient  and  agent  in  a 
thought  transference  experiment,  where  the  object 
to  be  transferred  was  a  kettle,  no  one  but  a  con¬ 
vinced  believer  in  telepathy  would  venture  to  claim 
the  result  as  a  partial  success.  In  the  case  in 
question,  the  fact  that  the  suggestion  was  a  verbal 
one  gives  us  a  key  to  the  development  of  the  dream. 
In  the  case  of  a  picture  the  result  may  have  been 
less  obviously  dependent  on  the  initial  idea.  It  is 
clear  that  the  contribution  by  the  agent  will  be  large 
or  small,  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  contribution  of 
the  mind  of  the  percipient.  Where  the  ideas  of  the 
agent  fail  to  emerge  into  the  consciousness  of  the 
percipient,  the  result  will  be  a  failure. 

When  indisputable  statistical  proof  is  given  that 
the  coincidences  between  the  ideas  of  the  agent  and 
the  ideas  of  the  percipient  are  more  numerous  than 
chance,  including  variation  due  to  chance,  would 
give,  we  cannot,  it  is  clear,  attach  any  importance 
to  failures  as  an  argument  against  the  conclusion 
drawn  from  this  excess  of  coincidences.  The  failures 
may  help  to  throw  light  on  the  laws  of  thought 
transference;  they  cannot  any  longer  throw  doubt 
on  the  fact.  If  some  one,  to  take  a  parallel  case, 
denies  the  existence  of  memory  (to  take  an  example 


PROBLEMS 


187 

unthinkable  in  itself,  but  convenient  as  affording  a 
close  parallel),  on  the  ground  that  we  do,  in  fact, 
forget  many  more  facts  of  consciousness  than  we 
remember,  the  arguments  would  hardly  be  re¬ 
garded  as  conclusive.  If  a  child  can  get  no  further 
in  the  alphabet  than  A.B.C.  ...  its  memory  may 
not  be  very  strong,  but  it  has  one.  Similarly  the 
proof  of  thought  transference  is  independent  of  the 
existence  of  failures,  though  not  of  the  proportion  of 
successes  to  failures.  To  this  point  we  return  below. 

The  real  problems  1  raised  by  the  experiments  in 
thought  transference  are  very  different.  Attention 
has  been  called,  in  the  preceding  pages,  to  an 
occasional  instance  of  reversal  of  the  image  in  a 
diagram,  visualized  or  drawn  automatically. 
Another  case  of  a  rather  striking  kind,  I  quote  here 
instead  of  in  the  proper  place,  because  the  original 
record  has  unfortunately  been  mislaid.  In  a 
series  with  diagrams,  I  myself  being  the  agent,  I 
interposed  a  number,  using  for  the  purpose  one  of 
a  set  of  cloak-room  tickets,  bought  for  the  purpose; 
the  percipient  was  unaware  that  there  was  any 
change  in  the  conditions  of  the  experiment,  and 
drew  the  number  47,  which  she  visualized,  in  the  way 
described  on  p.  144,  mirror-wise.  The  experiment 

1  Apart,  that  is,  from  the  primary  problem  of  the  nature 
of  the  telepathic  process,  which,  for  purposes  of  discussion, 
I  there  and  elsewhere  assume  to  be  a  fact. 


1 88  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


was  tried  under  the  usual  conditions,  I  being  behind 
my  secretaire  and  the  percipient  seated  with  her 
back  to  me  in  such  a  position  that  no  reflection  from 
any  bright  object  was  possible.  This  was  the  only 
experiment  of  the  kind  which  I  tried.  It  resulted 
in  a  complete  success,  both  figures  being  given  cor¬ 
rectly,  and  they  were  so  reproduced  as  to  make  it 
quite  clear  that  the  percipient  was  unaware  that  the 
visualized  image  was  that  of  a  number. 

No  statistics  on  the  subject  of  reversal  are  avail¬ 
able,  and  they  would  avail  little  if  we  had  them. 
Except  in  cases  like  that  just  mentioned,  where  the 
reversal  strengthens  the  evidence  for  thought  trans¬ 
ference  by  excluding  the  more  ordinary  explana¬ 
tions,  the  multiplication  of  cases  of  reversal  is  indeed 
desirable,  but,  until  we  have  made  some  progress 
in  the  explanation  of  thought  transference,  com¬ 
paratively  useless  for  immediate  purposes.  As 
illustrating  the  extent  to  which  reversal  may  take 
place,  a  series  of  experiments  may,  however,  be 
mentioned,  the  record  of  which  is  printed  on  p.  166 
of  the  first  volume  of  Proceedings.  In  37  trials 
with  one  agent  and  percipient  there  were  no  failures 
to  guess  correctly  the  vertical  position  of  an  arrow, 
the  direction,  whether  up  or  down,  being  also  named 
correctly  in  all  the  20  trials.  In  the  17  trials,  how¬ 
ever,  in  which  the  arrow  was  in  a  lateral  position, 
the  right  position  and  direction  were  named  6  times, 


PROBLEMS 


189 


and  the  right  position  and  wrong  direction  (reversal) 
8  times,  and  the  position  was  given  wrong  3  times. 

The  conditions  seem  to  have  been  quite  satisfac¬ 
tory,  as  indeed  might  have  been  expected  from  the 
names  of  the  experimenters,  Messrs.  Gurney,  Myers, 
Podmore  and  Barrett.  But  it  may  be  pointed  out 
for  the  benefit  of  sceptics  that  if  the  results  were 
due  to  indications,  conscious  or  unconscious,  there 
should  have  been  no  more  difficulty  in  indicating 
the  direction  when  the  arrow  was  lateral  than  when 
it  was  vertical. 

In  the  case  of  reproduction  of  diagrams  by  auto¬ 
matic  writing,  the  reversal  presents  no  difficulty; 
it  is  paralleled  by  innumerable  cases  of  mirror- 
script,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  assume  that  reversal 
in  such  cases  differs  from  reversal  where  the  writing 
or  drawing  is  a  product  solely  of  the  automatist’s 
brain. 

The  subject  of  mirror-writing,  and  seeing,  has 
been  discussed  by  F.  W.  H.  Myers  in  an  early  stage 
of  his  studies  in  the  subliminal  faculty  ( Proc .  S.P.R. 
iii.  39-44).  His  view  is  that  in  automatic  writing 
the  action  of  the  right  hemisphere  of  the  brain  is 
predominant,  because  the  waking  mind,  as  a  rule, 
makes  use  of  the  left  hemisphere,  and  controls  it 
more  readily.  Dr.  Ireland,  in  a  paper  on  mirror¬ 
writing  {Brain,  iv.  366,  sq.),  suggests  that  the  image 
or  impression,  or  change  in  the  brain  tissue,  from 


190  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


which  the  image  is  formed  in  the  mind  of  the  mirror 
writer,  is  reversed  like  the  negative  of  a  photograph ; 
or  that  if  a  double  image  is  formed,  the  images  lie 
in  opposite  directions.  If  this  were  the  case,  mirror- 
writing  would  be  due,  he  suggests,  to  the  operation 
of  the  hemisphere  in  which  the  inverse  image  is 
formed. 

This  view,  if  correct,  throws  some  light  on  the 
cases  of  reversal  of  the  visual  image,  of  which  a  few 
examples  have  been  given  before.  Where  the  writing 
is  reversed,  we  have  no  reason  to  connect  the  agent, 
or  rather  the  conditions  under  which  it  is  produced, 
with  the  result,  save  so  far  as  we  take  the  view  that 
thought  transference  is  a  sub-conscious  process 
in  the  main,  and  therefore  in  all  probability,  on 
Myers’  hypothesis,  connected  rather  with  the  right 
than  the  left  hemisphere.  But  in  the  case  of  the 
arrow  experiments  and  the  duplex  experiment 
mentioned  above  (p.  146)  we  have  no  ground  for 
assuming  that  the  visualization  is  specially  con¬ 
nected  with  dextro-cerebral 1  processes.  We  are  by 
no  means  bound  to  look  for  the  cause  of  the  reversal 
in  the  percipient;  it  is  equally  possible  that  the 
image  was  reversed  when  it  was  transmitted ;  and 
this  view  is  borne  out,  so  far  as  a  single  experiment 
can  bear  out  any  supposition,  by  the  difference  be- 

1  That  is,  processes  going  on  in  the  right  hemisphere  of 
the  brain. 


PROBLEMS 


191 

tween  the  images  in  the  duplex  experiment,  only  one 
of  which  is  reversed.  Inasmuch,  however,  as  in¬ 
version  is  not  known  to  occur  in  hallucinations, 
which  we  may  also  connect  with  predominant  activ¬ 
ity  of  the  right  side  of  the  brain,  we  may  even  go 
further  and  argue  that  all  cases  of  reversal  of  vis¬ 
ualized  images  must  be  due  to  the  agent.  The  sub¬ 
ject  is,  however,  exceedingly  obscure,  and  I  merely 
suggest  the  point  as  one  likely  to  throw  some  light 
on  the  mechanism  of  transmission. , 

In  the  Sidgwick  number-experiments  there  were 
a  certain  number  of  reversed  successes.  So  far  as 
these  were  not  due  to  chance  we  might  be  tempted 
to  explain  them  on  the  same  principle  as  the  reversal 
of  diagrams.  In  an  experiment  recorded  by  Mr. 
Myers  ( Proc .  S.P.R.  iii.  44)  words  of  three  letters 
were,  in  two  cases,  seen  reversed,  or  rather  the  letters 
appeared  in  the  field  of  mental  vision  in  reverse  order. 
These  cases  differ,  however,  fundamentally  from 
mirror  reversals,  in  that  it  is  the  components  which 
are  seen  in  reversed  order  and  not  the  whole  image 
which  is  seen  reversed,  and  it  seems  safest  to  con¬ 
clude  that  two  different  sets  of  causes  are  at  work. 

Another  problem  raised  by  these  experiments  is 
the  effect  of  distance  on  their  success  or  failure. 
With  the  same  percipients  the  proportion  of  suc¬ 
cesses  at  a  distance,  even  where  the  distance  is  no 
more  than  that  between  two  rooms  in  the  same 


192  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


house,  is  usually  much  less  considerable  than  the 
same  proportion  in  experiments  conducted  in  the 
same  room.  In  the  Sidgwick  experiments  this  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  effect  of 
the  idea  of  distance  on  the  mind.1  Now  we  have  -no 
reason  to  suppose  that  conscious  effort  is  necessary 
or  helpful  in  promoting  success.  Several  cases  have 
been  quoted  above  in  which  the  guess  clearly  re¬ 
ferred  to  an  object  seen  either  by  some  one  else  or 
by  the  agent,  but  not  intended  to  be  transferred. 
Unless  we  suppose  that  these  cases  were  due  to 
chance  alone,  a  rather  sweeping  supposition,  if  we 
accept  thought  transference,  it  is  clear  that  conscious 
effort  has  not  necessarily  anything  whatever  to  do 
with  telepathy  so  far  as  the  agent  is  concerned.  It 
is,  in  fact,  quite  arguable  that  the  transference  takes 
place  when  the  agent  is  not  thinking  of  the  object, 
card  or  diagram  to  be  transferred. 

We  must,  therefore,  suppose  that  the  ill-success, 
if  it  is  due  to  the  sense  of  distance,  is  due  to  sugges¬ 
tion  operating  subconsciously.  There  is,  however, 

1  It  should  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  even  if  clairvoy¬ 
ance  proper  is  not  a  fact  (but  little  good  evidence  is  avail¬ 
able),  a  considerable  number  of  people  seem  to  be  able  to 
guess  correctly  a  considerable  proportion  of  cards  drawn  at 
random  by  themselves  and  not  looked  at — a  fact  not  yet 
thoroughly  explained.  If  the  perception  is  supersensual,  the 
plus  of  successes  in  experiments  where  agent  and  percipient 
are  in  the  same  room  may  be  one  and  the  same  cause.  For 
a  discussion  of  the  evidence  see  p.  43,  ante. 


PROBLEMS 


193 


absolutely  nothing  in  the  evidence  for  spontaneous 
thought  transference  to  suggest  that  distance  has 
any  effect.  Except  in  so  far  as  the  agent  or  percipi¬ 
ent,  therefore,  believes  that  distance  is  a  factor, 
there  is  no  reason  to  regard  it  as  operative  in 
experiments.  The  conditions  of  spontaneous  and 
experimental  thought  transference  are,  it  is  true, 
very  different.  In  the  former  cases  the  transfer¬ 
ence  is,  as  a  rule,  if  the  evidence  collected  by  the 
S.P.R.  be  trustworthy,  that  of  an  image  of  the  agent, 
who  is,  however,  very  far  from  thinking  of  himself, 
and  is  not  thinking,  in  some  cases,  possibly  in  a 
majority  of  cases,  of  the  percipient.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  experimental  thought  transference,  even 
where  no  conscious  effort  is  made  to  transmit  ideas, 
there  is  always  the  knowledge  that  a  given  person  is 
to  be  the  percipient,  and,  of  necessity,  known  objects 
brought  expressly  before  the  mind,  form  the  test 
by  which  we  judge  of  the  success  or  failure  of  the 
experiment.  It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten 
that  we  find  connecting  links  between  the  two  types 
of  phenomena,  firstly,  in  transferences  from  the 
agent  of  ideas  not  consciously  present  to  his  mind 
and  possibly  entirely  latent,  so  far  as  his  memory  and 
every-day  consciousness  are  concerned ;  secondly, 
in  transferences  of  ideas,  equally  beneath  the  surface 
in  most  cases,  from  other  than  the  person  who  is 
endeavoring  to  effect  the  transference ;  and  thirdly, 


o 


194  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

in  the  transference  of  ideas  from  an  “  unconscious 
agent,”  to  an  “  unconscious  percipient,”  that  is  to 
say,  where  there  is  no  effort  either  to  give  or  re¬ 
ceive. 

We  may  therefore,  prima  facie,  regard  spontan¬ 
eous  and  experimental  telepathy  as  the  extreme  types 
of  a  single  phenomenon.  If  this  is  so,  we  are 
justified  in  saying  that  distance  has  in  itself  no 
influence  in  diminishing  the  telepathic  impulse. 
Possibly,  if  percipient  and  agent  clearly  keep  this 
before  their  minds,  the  results  of  trial  at  a  distance 
may  improve. 

The  main  purpose  of  these  pages  has  been  to  give 
an  outline  of  the  experimental  evidence  for  thought 
transference,  and  to  indicate  to  those  who  feel  suffi¬ 
cient  interest  in  the  question  to  try  experiments 
on  their  own  behalf  how  they  can  best  set  about 
it. 

It  will  perhaps,  however,  be  not  uninteresting  to 
sketch  briefly  some  of  the  theories  which  have  been 
propounded,  by  those  who  accept  telepathy  as 
a  fact,  in  explanation  of  the  transmission  of  thoughts 
and  images.  These  range  from  von  Hartmann’s 
theory,  which  makes  the  Absolute  into  a  telepathic 
exchange  station  for  the  Universe  at  large,  to  the 
view  of  Morin,  propounded,  it  is  true,  before  any  of 
the  experiments  here  summarized,  on  the  ground 
of  the  so-called  community  of  sensation  between 


THEORIES  195 

hypnotizer  and  patient,  who  accounts  for  everything 
by  hypersesthesia. 

A  theory  put  forward  some  twenty  years  ago  by 
Dr.  Barety,  based  though  it  was  on  entirely  insuffi¬ 
cient  proofs,  is  worthy  of  mention,  if  only  for  the 
reason  that  it,  in  a  way,  anticipates  the  still  con¬ 
troverted  discovery  of  Blondlot.  The  N-rays  of 
the  latter  had  as  predecessors  the  “  force  neurique 
rayonnante  ”  of  the  former,  the  odic  force  of  Baron 
Reichenbach  and  the  mesmeric  fluid  of  an  earlier 
day. 

Dr.  Ochorowicz  (De  la  Suggestion  Mentale,  p. 
5 1 1 )  holds  that  thought  remains  in  the  brain,  but 
that,  like  any  other  force,  it  cannot  remain  isolated ; 
if,  however,  it  passes  out  of  the  brain,  it  does  so 
in  another  form,  just  as  the  chemical  energy  of  the 
galvanic  battery  after  passing  out  of  the  cell  is 
called  the  electric  current.  The  currents  of  motor 
nerves  cannot  constitute  the  only  dynamic  equiva¬ 
lent  of  the  central  mechanism. 

Mr.  Podmore  ( Apparitions  and  Thought  Trans¬ 
ference,  p.  388)  is  disposed  to  suggest  “  some  kind 
of  vibration,  propagated  somehow  through  a  con¬ 
jectural  medium  from  an  unspecified  nerve  centre,” 
as  an  explanation  of  thought  transference. 

Professor  Flournoy  holds  that  direct  action  be¬ 
tween  living  beings,  independently  of  the  organs  of 
sense,  is  so  in  accord  with  all  we  know  of  nature 


1 96  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

that  he  would  be  inclined  to  suspect  its  existence 
quite  apart  from  experimental  evidence.  He  holds 
that  nervous  centres  must  inevitably  transmit  various 
undulations  which  act  on  similar  centres  in  other 
skulls. 

Sir  William  Crookes  ( Proc .  S.P.R.  xii.  348-352) 
was  rash  enough  in  1898  to  court  the  obloquy  which 
is  the  certain  fate  of  a  scientific  man  who  ventures 
to  go  beyond  the  gospel  of  science,  when,  as  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  British  Association,  he  accepted  tele¬ 
pathy.  Probably,  in  the  eyes  of  his  scientific 
colleagues,  he  did  little  to  redeem  himself  from  the 
reproach  of  heterodoxy  when  he  propounded  a 
physical  theory  to  account  for  the  obnoxious 
phenomena.  He  too  holds  that  thoughts  are  trans¬ 
mitted  by  brain  waves ;  and  that  telepathy  is  a 
matter  of  ether  waves  of  smaller  amplitude  and 
greater  frequency  than  those  which  constitute 
the  X-rays. 

In  opposition  to  the  views  enumerated  above, 
which  may  be  termed  “  physical,”  Sir  Oliver  Lodge 
upholds  the  “  psychical  ”  view.  Mental  pheno¬ 
mena,  as  such,  are  certainly  not  physical  processes, 
and  physical  terms,  such  as  “  action  at  a  distance,” 
are  probably  meaningless  and  absurd  when  applied 
to  psychical  facts. 

F.  W.  H.  Myers  in  his  Human  Personality  (vol.  i. 
p.  245),  declares  against  the  vibration  theory 


OBJECTIONS 


197 


of  Sir  William  Crookes  for  reasons  which,  being 
drawn  from  other  than  experimental  telepathic 
phenomena,  do  not  concern  us  here. 

Objections  Again 

To  review  all  or  any  of  these  theories  at  length 
is  unnecessary  in  a  sketch  like  the  present.  It  is, 
however,  worth  while  to  point  out  to  those  psycho¬ 
logists  who  ask  us  for  an  intelligible  physical  theory 
of  telepathy,  as  a  condition  of  considering  the 
evidence,  that  up  to  the  present  no  intelligible 
physical  theory  of  the  connexion  of  mind  and 
matter  has  been  given  us  by  psychologists.  If 
the  absence  of  an  intelligible  theory,  capable  of 
accounting  for  the  facts  of  the  case,  is  a  ground 
for  ignoring  the  facts,  we  have  no  resource  but  to 
ignore  mental  phenomena.  If  we  are  not  ab¬ 
solute  automata,  if  our  mental  processes  are  not 
the  results  of  an  inexorable  chain  of  physical  causa¬ 
tion,  of  which  the  mind  is  a  mere  by-product,  an 
epiphenomenon,  which  has  no  influence  either 
on  its  own  states  or  on  matter,  whether  of  the  » 
brain  or  otherwise,  we  may  hold  (1)  that  mind  and 
matter  interact,  and  that  physical  causation  is 
not  the  only  causal  relationship  in  the  universe. 
For  clearly  if  mental  states  are  causes  as  well  as 
effects,  they  are  either  independent  of  physical 
causation  altogether,  or  the  psychical  must  be 


I9S  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

regarded  as  influencing  the  physical  just  as  we 
suppose  that  the  ether  influences  matter  and  vice 
versa.  On  the  other  hand,  we  may  hold  (2)  that 
mind  can  influence  matter,  but  that  there  is  no 
reciprocal  action ;  organized  matter  is  necessary  to 
mind  in  order  to  provide  it  with  a  means  of  com¬ 
municating,  without  uncertainty,  with  other  minds, 
but  it  functions  only  as  a  transmitter,  and  has  no 
more  influence  on  the  thought  than  has  the  telephone 
on  the  voice  or  ideas  of  the  person  who  uses  it 
(those  cases  excluded  in  which  it  excites  him  to  use 
bad  language). 

Whether  these  views  are  true  or  not,  one  thing 
is  certain,  and  that  is,  that  they  explain  nothing; 
it  cannot,  in  fact,  be  claimed  that  they  are  theories 
at  all ;  they  are  mere  statements  exactly  as  what 
we  term  the  law  of  gravitation  is  a  designation 
and  not  an  explanation. 

The  ordinary  theory  is  that  known  as  psycho¬ 
physical  parallelism,  or  the  double  aspect.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  this  theory,  physical  changes  accompany, 
and  are  simultaneous  with,  psychical  facts.  The 
psychical  facts  are  one  side  of  the  shield,  the  physical 
facts  the  other,  and  yet  the  physical  facts  can  be 
explained  by  physical  causes,  the  mental  by  psychical 
causes. 

Now  whatever  other  merits  this  theory  may 
have,  it  has,  in  some  of  its  forms  at  least,  the 


MIND  AND  MATTER 


199 


demerit  of  absolute  unintelligibility.  We  can  un¬ 
derstand  two  sets  of  physical  causes  combining  to 
produce  a  result;  but  we  are  here  asked  to  hold 
( 1 )  that  two  sets  of  facts,  separated  by  an  imperme¬ 
able  bulkhead,  and  absolutely  heterogeneous  in 
their  natures,  are  determined  each  by  their  in¬ 
dividual  chains  of  causation,  but  that  (2)  the 
changes  in  the  one  chain  correspond  to  the  changes  in 
the  other  chain  in  the  sense  that  a  given  psychical 
change  is  always  accompanied  by  a  corresponding 
physical  change,  and  that  the  changes  and  results 
may  be  described  indifferently  in  terms  of  mind  or 
matter. 

As  long  as  psychology  puts  mind  and  matter 
in  separate  compartments  and  keeps  them  there, 
it  is  clearly  rather  unreasonable  to  ask  psychical 
research  to  propound  a  physical  theory  of  certain 
changes  in  mental  states.  If  mind  is  a  thing 
sui  generis  with  its  own  chain  of  causation,  it  is 
surely  enough  to  say  that  mind  influences  mind, 
for  ex  hypothesi  matter  does  not  matter.  We 
know  certain  of  the  steps  by  which  mind  is  seen 
to  influence  mind  in  ordinary  life.  The  modes  by 
which  this  influence  is  exerted  we  call  written  and 
spoken  language,  gesture  and  so  on,  but  as  to  the 
process,  so  far  as  the  passage  from  the  mental  to 
the  physical  and  from  the  physical  back  to  the 
mental  is  concerned,  we  are  completely  in  the  dark. 


200  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

All  we  can  give  an  account  of,  are  certain  physical 
processes,  beginning,  to  take  the  typical  cases  speak¬ 
ing  and  writing  with  their  correlatives,  hearing  and 
reading,  as  a  matter  of  experience  with  nervous 
changes,  as  a  matter  of  theory  with  antecedent 
brain  changes,  none  of  which  have,  however,  ever 
been  observed,  and  possibly  never  will  be  observed ; 
proceeding  as  muscular  changes,  by  means  of  which 
at  some  time,  proximate  or  remote,  gaseous  matter 
is  set  in  a  state  of  vibration  or  solid  matter  receives 
more  or  less  permanent  impressions ;  continued  as 
nervous  vibrations  and,  again  in  theory  and  not 
as  a  matter  of  observation,  terminating,  so  far  as 
the  physical  world  is  concerned,  in  brain  changes. 
The  important  point,  the  link  between  mental  and 
brain  changes  at  the  outset  and  brain  and  mental 
changes  at  the  close,  is  left  absolutely  untouched. 

But  this  means  that  psychology  and  physiology 
have  not  explained  how  mind  influences  mind  in¬ 
directly.  All  they  have  done  is  to  leave  the  mental 
element  out  of  account  and  trace  certain  chains  of 
physical  causation.  But  if  science  can  give  no  ex¬ 
planation  of  the  transmission  of  thought  in  the 
field  which  she  investigates,  it  is  clearly  unreason¬ 
able  to  demand  that,  as  a  preliminary  to  the  investi¬ 
gation  of  evidence  going  to  show  the  existence  of 
other  modes  of  mental  interaction,  possibly  en¬ 
tirely  non-physical,  a  theory  shall  be  set  forth 


COMMUNICATION  OF  IDEAS 


201 


which  assumes  that  a  chain  of  physical  causation 
docs  form  a  part  of  the  process. 

If  we  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  facts  on  which 
we  base  our  belief  that  one  man  can  communicate 
with  another,  we  find  that,  under  certain  circum¬ 
stances,  we  are  able,  by  means  of  a  process,  the 
intermediate  portion  of  which  is  physical,  the 
beginning  and  end  psychical,  in  its  nature,  to  trans¬ 
mit  our  thoughts,  according  to  universal  belief, 
from  one  to  another  by  speech  or  writing.  We 
conclude  that  we  are  able  to  do  so,  not  because 
we  are  able  to  trace  part  of  the  process  in  the 
physical  world  and  there  observe  certain  invariable 
sequences,  and  to  assume  similar  sequences  in  por¬ 
tions  of  the  physical  world  withdrawn  from  obser¬ 
vation,  but  because  we  find  that,  under  favourable 
circumstances,  the  thought  which  we  express  evokes 
a  response  from  a  being  whose  consciousness  we 
infer,  resembles  our  own,  a  response  in  harmony 
with  the  expectations  we  have  formed.  The  fact 
that  we  cannot  make  a  deaf  man  or  a  foreigner 
understand  us  at  all  and  that  we  not  infrequently 
make  other  apparently  normal  individuals,  speaking 
our  own  tongue,  understand  us  only  with  consider¬ 
able  difficulty,  does  not  affect  our  judgment  on 
the  question,  which  does  not  depend  on  any  fact, 
except  that  the  number  of  coincidences  which 
we  infer  to  exist  between  the  mental  images  of 


202  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

other  people  and  our  own  is  greater  than  it  would 
be  if  the  two  series  of  phenomena  were  as  absolutely 
independent  of  one  another  as  any  two  series  can 
be  in  the  same  universe.  If  we  fail  to  make  a 
fellow  countryman  understand,  we  conclude,  either 
that  he  is  dull-witted  or  that  his  attention  is  dis¬ 
tracted,  or,  at  any  rate,  not  devoted  either  wholly 
or  to  a  sufficient  extent  to  the  matter  of  our  com¬ 
munication,  whether  this  be  due  to  external  causes 
such  as  distance  or  noise,  to  physiological  causes, 
such  as  bodily  impediments  to  the  normal  operation 
of  the  ordinary  chains  of  causation  which  result  in 
sight  or  hearing,  or  to  mental  causes  such  as  ab¬ 
sorption  in  some  other  idea;  or,  if  we  do  not  look 
for  the  cause  of  the  failure  to  transmit  our  ideas 
either  in  the  physical  conditions  or  in  the  indivi¬ 
dual  whom  we  are  addressing,  we  conclude  that 
our  language  has  been  ill-chosen,  or  that  the  ideas 
are  in  themselves  difficult  to  understand  if  not 
entirely  incomprehensible. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  on  any  supposed  explanation 
of  the  mechanism  of  the  communication  of  ideas 
that  we  base  our  belief  in  its  possibility.  This  ex¬ 
planation  science  cannot  give  in  its  entirety. 

In  dealing  with  the  ordinary  processes  by  which 
we  transmit  our  thoughts,  science  is  able  to  trace 
only  a  part  of  the  process ;  but  an  incomplete  chain 
of  causation  does  not  explain  a  process,  any 


EVIDENCE  AND  THEORY 


203 


more  than  a  broken  chain  will  transmit  a  pull ; 
science  cannot  claim  to  have  made  transmission 
of  thought  by  language  more  intelligible  or  more 
easy  to  accept  as  a  fact  by  showing  that  certain 
links  can  be  explained.  In  the  second  place,  our 
judgment  in  the  matter  does  not  depend  on  the 
completeness  or  otherwise  with  which  we  can  ex¬ 
plain  the  process  from  its  beginning  in  the  mind 
through  certain  physical  changes  to  its  end  in  an¬ 
other  mind.  So  far  as  the  proof  of  the  transmis¬ 
sion  is  concerned,  we  may  disregard  the  ability 
of  the  physicist  and  the  physiologist  to  show  us 
that  waves  of  light  or  sound  and  sensory  and  motor 
impulses  stand  to  one  another  in  the  relation  of  cause 
and  effect.  We  conclude  that  we  can  transmit  our 
thoughts,  because,  on  a  rough  estimate,  we  succeed 
immeasurably  oftener  than  we  fail,  and  our  suc¬ 
cesses  are  far  more  numerous  than  can  be  accounted 
for  by  chance  and  the  laws  of  normal  variation. 

Now,  it  is  clear  that  we  cannot  demand  more 
evidence  for  thought  transference  than  we  do  for 
ordinary  transmission  of  thought.  If  the  one  pro¬ 
cess  cannot  be  completely  explained,  no  one  has 
a  right  to  accept  it  as  a  fact,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  refuse  to  credit  the  existence  of  another  process, 
because  this  second  process,  unlike  the  first,  does  not 
receive  even  a  partial  explanation  in  terms  of 
physics  and  physiology.  Even  if  the  second  process 


204  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

were  known  to  be  partially  physical,  the  absence 
of  an  explanation  would  be  no  logical  bar  to  its 
acceptance  as  a  fact.  Until  it  is  shown  to  be 
partially  physical,  the  absence  of  such  explanation 
is  an  even  less  valid  argument  for  not  admitting 
the  existence  of  the  fact.  A  fact  is  not  less  a 
fact  because  it  is  unexplained.  The  proof  of  thought 
transference,  resting  on  an  unexplained  excess  of 
coincidences  in  the  mental  phenomena  of  two  in¬ 
dividuals,  is  valid  so  far  as  the  investigations  are 
successful  in  excluding  all  transmission  by  means 
of  the  senses,  whether  they  offer  or  succeed  in  giv¬ 
ing  an  explanation  of  the  process  of  thought  trans¬ 
ference  or  not.  Not  only  is  it  perfectly  legitimate 
first  to  prove  the  fact  and  then  to  seek  the  explana¬ 
tion,  but  we  may,  as  we  do  and  have  done  for  years 
in  the  case  of  gravitation,  accept  this  fact  and  in¬ 
vestigate  its  laws,  without  holding,  or  attempting 
to  formulate  any  theory,  physical  or  otherwise,  as 
to  its  mode  of  operation. 


CHAPTER  X  1 1 


How  to  experiment 

In  the  hope  that  some  leisured  reader,  who  is  also 
endowed  with  inexhaustible  patience,  may  be  in¬ 
duced  by  a  perusal  of  the  foregoing  pages  to  try 
some  experiments  on  his  own  account,  I  now  offer 
some  suggestions  as  to  the  methods  of  experimenta¬ 
tion.  The  errors  have  been  alluded  to  already,  for 
the  most  part,  in  the  running  discussion  on  the 
series  of  trials  described  above.  It  will,  however, 
be  convenient  to  collect  the  scattered  hints  and  give 
precise  directions  for  avoiding  causes  of  error. 

First,  as  to  the  object,  that  is  to  say,  the  word, 
idea,  diagram,  picture,  or  whatever  may  be  selected 
for  the  agent  to  transfer  mentally  to  the  percipient. 
Except  in  the  case  of  pictures,  complicated  objects 
should  be  avoided,  as  being  unnecessarily  hard  for 
the  agent  to  grasp  and  unlikely  to  be  reproduced  by 
any  except  unusually  gifted  percipients. 

Where  the  object  is  a  card  or  something  equally 
readily  drawn  at  random  from  a  number  of  ap¬ 
parently  similar  objects,  no  special  precautions  need 

be  taken  except  to  thoroughly  shuffle  the  pack 

205 


206  thought  transference 


after  each  draw;  this  will  be  most  easily  done  if 
two  packs  are  used.  Where  the  object  cannot  be 
selected  in  this  way,  care  should  be  taken  to  elimi¬ 
nate  any  personal  element  by  making-  the  choice 
depend  on  the  toss  of  a  coin,  or  by  numbering 
the  objects  and  deciding  on  the  number  by  draw¬ 
ing  lots.  This  can  be  readily  done  by  having  two 
boxes  of  cards  with  numbered  digits,  the  second 
containing  all  ten  figures,  the  first  only  so  many  as 
are  required  to  make  it  possible  to  draw  any  of  the 
objects  but  no  more.  Cloak  room  tickets  can  of 
course  be  used ;  it  will  save  trouble  to  sort  out  only 
the  precise  number  wanted. 

Where  diagrams  are  used  care  should  be  taken 
to  prepare  them  beforehand  so  that  they  can  be 
selected  by  lot  or  drawn  like  ordinary  playing  cards. 
Calculations  of  probabilities  are  simplified  by  the 
use  of  round  numbers,  fifty  or  a  hundred.  If  the 
number  in  use  is  too  large,  there  is  apt  to  be  a 
great  similiarity  between  two  or  more  diagrams, 
which  upsets  the  calculation  of  probabilities. 

Next  as  to  the  locale  of  the  experiments.  Two 
rooms  should  be  used,  for,  especially  with  un¬ 
skilled  experimenters,  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to 
avoid  verbal  suggestion.  The  signal  for  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  the  experiment  should  be  given  by 
a  bell  or  some  means  that  does  not  involve  per¬ 
sonal  communication ;  it  is  not  difficult  to  rig  up 


HOW  TO  EXPERIMENT 


20/ 


two  electric  bells,  so  that  both  agent  and  percipient 
can  signal.  If  only  one  bell  is  used,  a  given  time 
must  be  agreed  on  for  each  experiment.  It  saves 
trouble  to  try  the  experiments  in  series  of  ten,  or, 
in  the  case  of  cards,  thirteen  or  twenty-six. 

Then  as  to  methods.  Crystal  gazers  or  automatic 
writers  may  use  these  methods  of  externalizing 
their  impressions.  For  the  ordinary  person  only 
two  forms  of  experiment  or  at  most  three  are  avail¬ 
able.  They  may  wait  for  a  mental  impression,  that 
is  to  say,  make  their  minds  as  much  a  blank  as 
possible  and  guess  whatever  comes  into  their  heads 
after  the  signal  has  been  given.  Or,  if  they  are 
expert  visualisers,  that  is  to  say,  if  they  can  with¬ 
out  difficulty  call  up  a  vivid  mental  picture  of  an 
object,  such  as  we  nearly  all  of  us  see  in  dreams,  by 
merely  thinking  of  it,  they  can  close  their  eyes 
and  endeavour  to  keep  their  mental  blackboard  a 
blank  until  the  signal  has  been  given,  and  then  either 
describe  what  they  see  to  a  third  person,  or,  espe¬ 
cially  if  they  are  handy  with  the  pencil,  sketch  what 
they  see  on  a  numbered  piece  of  paper. 

Some  few  people  seem  to  get  auditory  im¬ 
pressions,  that  is  to  say,  it  is  as  though  the  word  or 
idea  were  whispered  to  them.  No  special  precau¬ 
tions  are  needed  in  such  cases. 

If  it  is  important  to  take  all  these  measures,  in 
order  to  prevent  causes  of  error,  it  is  no  less  impor- 


208  thought  transference 


tant  to  record  that  they  have  been  taken,  otherwise 
the  experiments  are  valueless  as  a  contribution  to 
science.  However  persuaded  the  experimenter  may 
be  in  his  own  mind  that  there  were  no  disturbing 
elements,  his  assurance  on  this  point  carries  no 
weight  unless  he  can  point  to  the  corroborative 
testimony  of  the  contemporaneous  record.  Espe¬ 
cially  where  the  experimenters  have  no  great  ex¬ 
perience  in  such  matters,  it  is  well  to  depute  one 
person  to  keep  the  record  and  to  do  nothing  else. 
This  is,  of  course,  a  simple  matter  where  agent  and 
percipient  are  in  different  rooms  (in  which  case 
two  recorders  are  needed),  but  even  then  it  is  far 
less  simple  than  it  seems  to  take  accurate  notes  of 
all  that  goes  on,  and  especially  of  any  communica¬ 
tion  between  the  two  rooms. 

The  record  should  be  absolutely  contemporaneous ; 
any  subsequent  additions  must  be  clearly  distin¬ 
guished  as  such.  It  must  give  details  of  time  and 
place,  of  the  names  of  all  present,  of  the  objects 
used  in  the  experiments,  and  of  how  the  selection 
of  each  object  for  the  individual  experiments  was 
made.  It  should  state  whether  the  percipient  was 
aware  what  kind  of  trial — whether  with  cards, 
numbers  or  what  not — was  being  made,  whether 
he  was  previously  acquainted  with  the  diagrams 
or  informed  of  the  limits  between  which  the  num¬ 
bers  lay,  and  so  on.  It  should  be  noted  whether 


HOW  TO  EXPERIMENT 


209 


the  percipient  concentrated  his  attention  on  the  ob¬ 
ject,  or  closed  his  eyes  and  tried  to  visualise  it,  and 
so  on.  The  percipient’s  words  should  be  taken 
down  verbatim,  together  with  details  as  to  the 
method  of  externalization,  crystal  automatic  writ¬ 
ing,  etc.  In  fact  it  is  very  easy  to  note  too  little, 
but  difficult  to  note  too  much. 

The  records  should  be  dated  and  signed  by  the 
recorder,  and  carefully  preserved  for  analysis, 
whether  the  series  is  in  any  way  successful  or  not, 
as  data  for  the  study  of  thought  transference.  Any 
one  who  gets,  or  believes  that  he  gets,  results  con¬ 
siderably  above  expectation  for  any  period  of  time, 
will  do  well  to  communicate  with  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  which  will  control  the  results 
by  further  sittings,  if  desirable. 

It  is  a  convenient  plan,  especially  in  card  ex¬ 
periments,  to  enter  on  the  same  sheet  the  cards 
drawn  and  the  guesses. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the  record 
is  kept,  I  append  a  copy  of  one  of  a  duplex  ex¬ 
periment.  The  experimenters  were  all  familiar  with 
the  routine  of  experiments,  and  consequently  the 
only  facts  to  be  recorded  were  the  positions  of  the 
experimenters,  the  object,  the  guesses,  and  the  way 
in  which  the  record  was  kept. 

20,  Hanover  Square,  W.,  4.40  p.m.,  February 
2,  1903.  Conditions  as  before. 

p 


210  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

Percipients,  Mrs.  H.,  in  the  library ;  Mr.  Thomas, 
in  store-room. 


Agent,  Miss  R.,  in  secretary’s  room. 

V.  Larminie  recording.  Two  packs  used ;  card 


drawn,  ring  and 

record.  Series  of 

thirteen  before 

comparing — 

Card  Drawn. 

Mrs.  H. 

Mr.  T. 

i.  7  H. 

6  D. 

2  D. 

2.  9  D. 

Kn.  H. 

6  H. 

3.  Kn.  Sp. 

6  C. 

5  S  % 

4.  Kn.  Sp. 

9  Sp.  % 

4  C. 

5-  8  C. 

7  H. 

9  D. 

6-  4  C. 

1  C.  % 

Kg  S. 

7.  Kn.  D. 

7  H.  cor-  to  6D 

4  H. 

8.  6  S. 

4  H. 

Qn.  C. 

9.  10  H. 

Kg.  S. 

10  H.  52 

10.  9  S. 

5  C. 

7  C. 

11.  2  H. 

10  H  *4 

6  S. 

12.  6  S. 

Kg.  S.  K 

1  s.  54 

13.  4  C. 

4  C. 

4  C.  5V 

In  this  table  the  first  column  is  that  kept  by  the 
recorder  during  the  progress  of  the  experiments ; 
the  second  and  third  are  entered  subsequently  from 
the  cards  kept  by  the  percipients  or  the  recorders 
who  kept  notes  of  what  they  say.  The  figures  show 
the  consequences,  =  card  right,  tV  —  number 
right,  J4  =  suit  right,  these  fractions  representing 
expectation. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Proceedings  of  the  S.P.R. 

Vol.  i.  pp.  13,  35,  43,  47,  70,  161,*  263.* 

ii.  pp.  1,  24,*  189,  239.* 

iii.  pp.  190,  424.* 

iv.  pp.  127,*  324. 

v.  pp.  18,*  169,  216,*  269,  355. 

vi.  pp.  128,*  398. 

vii.  PP-  3,  374- 

viii.  pp.  422,  536.* 

x.  14.* 

xi.  pp.  2,  235. 

xii.  298.* 

Journal  of  the  S.P.R. 

Vol.  i.  pp.  318,  419,  460. 

ii.  34,  93,  183. 

iii.  179,  182,  186,*  190,  259,  309. 

iv.  33.  303- 

v.  21,  51,  ill,  167,  182,  184,  189,  266,  276,  293. 

vi.  4,  7,  98,  175,  227,  296. 
vii-  pp;  5-  34.  179.  234,  325-* 
viii.  p.  302. 

Proceedings  American  S.P.R.  Vol.  i, 

Ochorowicz.  La  Suggestion  Mentale,  Paris,  1887. 

*  Podmore,  F.  Apparitions  and  Thought  Transference, 
London,  1894. 

Podmore,  Gurney  and  Myers,  Phantasms  of  the  Living, 
London,  1885. 


211 


212  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 

Revue  Philosophique,  xviii.  609;  xxiii.  400;  xxii.  208;  xxv. 
435- 

Blackburn,  D.,  Thought  Reading,  London,  1884. 

In  addition  to  the  above  list,  which  does  not  profess  to 
be  in  any  way  exhaustive,  there  are  many  articles,  chiefly  of 
an  ephemeral  nature,  in  contemporary  literature,  reference  to 
which  will  be  found  in  Poole’s  Catalogue. 

In  the  above  list  the  important  articles  are  marked  with 
an  asterisk. 


INDEX 


Absent-mindedness,  34 
Action  at  a  distance,  5 
Andrew,  H.  M.,  65 
Automatic  writing,  38,  65 

B.,  Madame,  45,  109 
B.,  S.  H.,  101 
Barrett,  W.  F.,  65 
Bishop,  W.  I.,  10 
Brain  waves,  64 

Card  trials,  154 

Carpenter,  Dr.,  11 

Cases,  85,  87,  93,  98,  101,  109, 

1 16,  127,  seq. 

Causation,  17 
Clairvoyance,  43 
Colours,  139 
Conditions,  127,  155,  165 
Consciousness  non-spatial, 

7 

Cyclic  guesses,  161 

Despard,  Miss,  82 
Diagrams,  142 

Directions  for  experiments, 
105,  205 

Distance,  experiments  at  a,  76, 
81,  165,  192 
Dog,  clever,  107 

-  spectral,  92 

Dreams,  56 

-  experiments  with,  116 


Duplex  trials,  145,  147,  149, 
ISC  157,  I7i 

Eeden,  Dr.  van,  121 
Ermacora,  Dr.  120 
Error,  sources  of,  28 
Evidence,  27 
Expectation,  73 
Experimentation,  15,  105,  205 
Experimenters,  choice  of,  8 

Failures,  183 

French  Academy,  action  a  dis¬ 
tance,  63 

Gibbotteau,  Dr.,  93 
Gibert,  Dr.,  109 
Godfrey,  Rev.  C.,  102 
Guthrie,  M.,  67 

Habits,  29,  143 

Hallucinations,  35,  56,  88,  93, 
98,  102 

Horse,  clever,  107 
Hyperaesthesia,  28,  80,  ill, 
163 

Hypnotism,  35,  107 
-  at  a  distance,  109 

Illusions,  58 
Incredulity,  4 

Janet,  Dr.,  109 


214  THOUGHT  TRANSFERENCE 


Jastrow,  Professor,  25 

Kirk,  Mr.,  87 
Knowles,  Sir.  J.,  64 

Larminie,  Miss,  158 
Lehmann  and  Hansen,  73 

Magnetizers,  62 
Mcgraw,  Dr.,  65 
Mediumship,  12 1 
Mental  images,  53 
Mirror  writers,  189 
Motor  automatism,  58 
Muscle  reading,  30 
Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  33,  40,  112, 
126 

Newnham,  P.  H.,  65 

Objections,  5,  197 

P.,  Miss,  138,  141,  144,  151 
Pains,  transference  of,  70 
Perception,  33 
Pictures,  trials  with,  129 
Postponed  successes,  161,  164 
168 

Psychical  Research,  sphere  of, 
19 

Psycho-physical  theory,  198 


Record,  copy  of,  210 
Reresby,  Sir  J.,  95 
Reversed  images,  187,  191 
Richet,  Professor,  43,  71, 

US 

Science,  definition  of,  14 
Sensory  automatisms,  53 
Sidgwick,  Professor,  71 
-  Mrs.,  75 

Society  for  Psychical  Re¬ 
search,  objects  of,  2,  179 
Sorcery,  93 
Spiritualism,  177 
Subliminal,  33,  51 

T.,  Miss,  129,  140,  149,  158, 
174 

Telepathy  defined,  25 
Theories,  195 
Thomas,  N.  W.,  147,  152 
Thompson,  Mrs.,  121,  136 

Variables,  independent,  154 
Verrall,  Mrs.,  49,  144 
Visions,  55 

Visualisation  trials,  148 

Wesermann,  119 
Whispering,  unconscious,  29, 
73.  77 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY 
LIBRARY 


DURHAM,  NORTH  CAROLINA 
27706 


